Hagar EI3

Women in Judaism a Multidisciplinary Journal, 2009

The episode of Hagar and Ishmael's expulsion is reevaluated within the framework of typical reactions of a scorned woman. If it is assumed that Abraham tried to resolve his marital problems by separating Hagar and Ishmael from his household and settling them with their kin Muzrimites, then most of the textual difficulties are naturally resolved. Even if we interpret the Masoretic Text as an identification of Hagar being an Egyptian, nothing in the text compels us to conclude that she intended to return to Egypt on foot. There is biblical evidence that the relations between Ishmael and Isaac (and, perhaps, Abraham) were not severed. The geography of the region supports continued contact between Abraham, Isaac, Hagar, and Ishmael.

“Into the world you love”: Encountering God in Everyday Life, G. Garrett (ed), Hindmarsh: ATF Press, 2007

The aim of this assignment is to investigate the discourse of Hagar as it is introduced in the biblical narrative and examined throughout reception history, focusing on the postbiblical era, the rabbinic era, and the postmodern tradition. Furthermore, the aim is to discuss the discourse of Hagar's influence on the construction of women in Jewish tradition.

Hagar's Story, 2020

From Saint Paul through the Renaissance, much of Christian thought regarding Hagar and Sara has dichotomized them, making Sara the protagonist and Hagar the antagonist. Yet non Christian (or at least not explicitly Christian) modern and postmodern interpretations have focused on Hagar’s suffering. The seventeenth-century Dutch Golden Age might well have seeded the (post)modern west’s sympathy for Hagar and moved her from the story’s margins to its main stage. Modern interpreters such as Paul Laurence Dunbar, Toni Morrison, and Phyllis Trible have viewed Hagar as a symbol of injustice, rejection, and oppressed peoples. Her story begins in Genesis 16:1 and ends in 21:20, including the interluding chapters 17 through 21:9. In chapter 17, on the heels of Ishmael’s birth, God reaffirms God’s covenant with Abram and Sara despite the arrival of Abram’s (technically) firstborn son with Hagar. Chapters 18 and 19 then display contrasting narratives of hospitality. In chapter 18 Abram and Sara receive men who speak on God’s behalf and reaffirm God’s chapter 17 covenant with them. In chapter 19 these men visit Sodom and Gomorrah to investigate the outcry of unrighteousness that has been issued against it, but whereas Abram and Sara fed and safeguarded the visitors, the men of Sodom seek to violate them. In chapter 20 Abram and Sara’s encounter with Abimelek parallels their earlier scheming with Pharaoh. Is there a common thread? If so, then what does it have to do with Hagar? Why do Abram and Sara treat their visitors honorably, play coy with Abimelek, and use Hagar as an object? Why does God honor the covenant with Abram and Sara when their actions appear blatantly duplicitous? For their part, Abram and Sara are mere foils in these chapters, characters whose integrity contrasts sharply with God’s. Readers see God’s faithfulness to God’s promise as well as God’s faithfulness to a woman victimized by the very people with whom God has entered into covenant. For better or worse, the Hagar narrative portrays a God who is faithful to people who don’t deserve it — and to a woman who does. The following pages will examine her story through a literary lens, focusing on genre, structure, setting, point of view, characterization, and style, working with the MT, LXX and modern translations, before closing with brief theological and ethical implications.

This article examines the place of Hagar, an African woman, in pre-Islamic Arab history. It examines the story as it is presented in both the Jewish Scripture and by Judeo-Christian scholars, on one hand, and in Muslim sources on the other. The Sarah-Hagar issue in the Abrahamic family-history mainly informs the Judeo-Christian interpretation of the generational deadlocks between the believers of the biblical message and Muslims. Thus, a new approach to the understanding of the Hagar-Narrative could facilitate mutual understanding in the interreligious dialogue. Both Jewish and Muslim sources, to a large extent, trace the ancestry of the present generation of the Arabs to Hagar, the former African " slave " of the mother of " Hebrew " Israel through her son, Ismā'īl. The Judeo-Christian Hagar is presented as a sinner-slave who committed the sin of pride but who was welcome out of God's infinite Mercy for sinners. Nevertheless, in the Muslim sources, God's plan made this rejected African " slave " and her son the " sages " and pillars for a new nation and a fountain from which evolved " the greatest Prophet of humankind " , Muḥammad. The Story of Hagar is a neglected topic for interreligious dialogue between the Abrahamic faiths.

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 2007

... Yet once she bears a son she may not be cast out, as Hagar was. Sarah's demand for the expulsion of Hagar and her child can thus be said to be against law and custom. ... Ever since Cain was banished to the land of Nod, east of Eden (Gen. ...