Sarah And Abraham As A Concubine According To Hauer And Young
A wife. A slave. A husband. Sarah. Hagar. Abraham. Love and respect from a man to his wife was a luxury and rare in Sarah and Abraham’s day. But Sarah and Abraham managed more of both than most people in their day. Parents chose their children’s mates with very little consideration taken for the people involved. Marriage was more about political alliances and producing children to keep one’s family line going, along with the human race in general. When Sarah is found to be barren, Abraham doesn’t bat an eye for he had a strong relationship and faith in God and God had made a covenant to make him the father of many nations (Genesis 15). When old age was upon Sarah, she came up with an idea for him to take her Egyptian slave, Hagar, as a concubine
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to provide a child for Abraham and his covenant with God. Abraham, perhaps through logic and love for Sarah or for impatience and lack of trust in God agreed and had a child with Hagar. It was easy and quick for Hagar to provide the family with a son. Her success caused Sarah to grow jealous and hurt. Sarah and Hagar who once had a great relationship (probably why it was Hagar that Sarah offered to Abraham) grew to a turbulent and high tension one. Hagar grew in rank and that intimidated Sarah. Sarah mistreated Hagar in one way or another and drove her away from camp so they wouldn’t have to be in each other’s presence and Sarah wouldn’t be reminded of her inability. An angel found Hagar in the wilderness with her very young child, Ishmael, and encouraged Hagar to return to her master Sarah. Sarah and Abraham were told by an angel of the news that a son was to be born between the two of them. Both scoffed and laughed at this announcement but sometime after the angel appeared, Sarah begot a son named Isaac. When she found the children playing with one another, she again grew angry and banished Hagar for good (Genesis 21:10-14). All this time, Abraham seemed to trust in God and give the reigns of the family affairs to Sarah. He remained very quiet in the feud between the two women who bore him children. When Sarah approached him about what to do with Hagar as she has caused her pain, he basically allowed her to do as she pleased. This was unusual in Sarah and Abraham’s time. Sarah and Hagar determined most of the story line at this point in their story. According to Hauer and Young, Abraham is seen as an obedient man, a role model for all ages.
His faith is continually tested through his story and especially with his son. Hauer and Young believe he was portrayed as so faithful to show how God rewards those who follow Him. They do go on to point out his faults also but to point out he was still a human with sins and mistakes. They use the first example of him passing his wife off as his sister to avoid his own death (Genesis 12:10-20). If when the Pharaohs had taken Sarah and had relations, God could not carry out his plan with a woman who would then be considered dirty. Abraham not only did this once but twice. Another example Hauer and Young used was when he took Hagar as a concubine, to hurry the promised child of the covenant along. When God renamed Abram to Abraham (Genesis 17:5), he was changing his name to mean “father of many (Hauer and Young, 61).” Understandably, when Sarah doesn’t produce children for him, Abraham, as does Sarah, came to understand they must provide Abraham with a woman to produce him a child. Having this child was important on Abraham’s end of the covenant with God but doesn’t realize that God is to provide that child; it wasn’t up to the humans to determine when and who the child would be. This is where Hagar is introduced to the story. The test from God here is that Abraham and Sarah didn’t have faith that He would provide a child in their own age. This leads into Hauer and Young’s last point of Abraham’s skepticism. When the angel appeared to Abraham to deliver the news of a child, Abraham has very skeptical faith in the Lord, his God. Abraham went as far as to laugh at the Lord about being able to have a child in such a ripe age. Not only does this final test fall onto Abraham but on his barren wife also who exhibits the same skepticism and laughter (Genesis 18:9-15). That faith became solidified at the delivery of Isaac from God to Sarah and Abraham. Abraham’s faith underwent its
largest challenge when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22) and Abraham went as far to raise the knife above Isaac’s head before the angel called out to him to stop. “In this collection of vignettes about Abraham and Sarah, we see not flat, lifeless characters who walk through a divinely ordained drama like robots, but complex persons, with strengths and weaknesses, to whom a promise is given, put in jeopardy, and renewed (Hauer and Young, 62-63).” Bellis finds Abraham as somewhat passive in his story when it comes to the child he had with Hagar and allows Sarah to do as she pleases. This brings Sarah across as a jealous and angry woman. This idea of them highly contradicts the role models that Hauer and Young see Sarah and Abraham to be. Bellis and other scholars think that Sarah is marginalized. Though she had some negative characteristics brought upon her through the jealousy over Hagar, she was never casted as a villain in this story. Instead, Bellis and others believe she was reduced and only brought up when her reproductive ability/sexuality was in question or of interest. The message of her impeding pregnancy wasn’t even delivered to her. Instead, she had overheard or was told about it, though she had the same reaction as her husband who received the message firsthand. Bellis finds Sarah as not a victim or a villain, rather somewhere in the middle (Bellis, 62). Sarah victimizes Hagar through her anger towards perhaps both Hagar and Abraham while she is the victim of her husband when he passes her off as a sister and becomes a victim again at the expense of society and value placed on ability to have children. To some extent, I agree with both the views of Hauer and Young and the view of Bellis. Though Hauer and Young see the couple as strong, faithful people with a few small faults, Bellis almost sees them as weak with potentially many faults. In Hauer and Young’s view, I agree that Abraham and Sarah are extremely faithful people. Traveling where God tells them to, doing as He says and trusting that He has a plan. Abraham even creates a covenant with God which shows God placed his trust in Abraham also. But I also sympathize with Bellis’ view in how passive Abraham came off within the story when it neared the time of the promised child’s birth. I think Bellis has the idea that Abraham suddenly becomes a passive character and “hands over” his power to Sarah because of some of the wrongs he has done. For example, Bellis brought up that some scholars believe Sarah had caught Hagar and Abraham in adultery after it was known that Hagar was pregnant (Bellis, 61-62). In the lens of that thought, I would agree with a lot that Bellis said. I especially agree with her idea that Sarah was not a victim and not a villain but somewhere in between. She takes on a negative role when she grows angry with Hagar and her husband for their possible adultery. The husband, the wife, and were so much more dynamic than the elaborate and carefully thought out stories usually told. The story and especially the characters exhibit the real struggle and real complexity of a human and the relationships formed between multiple humans. Sarah’s story especially points out how hard it is to pin a hero badge upon a person or a villain title, as Sarah displayed with her characteristics of both at many points in her life. The story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar is significant because God creates a covenant to make Abraham the father of a great people, of many nations that will carry out His word. How Isaac comes about, how Abraham handles his barren wife by accepting God’s will of closing Sarah’s womb, and from them on is perhaps one of the most important stories of faith in the Old Testament/Tanakh. All because of a wife, a husband, and a slave involved in a covenant with God.
to provide a child for Abraham and his covenant with God. Abraham, perhaps through logic and love for Sarah or for impatience and lack of trust in God agreed and had a child with Hagar. It was easy and quick for Hagar to provide the family with a son. Her success caused Sarah to grow jealous and hurt. Sarah and Hagar who once had a great relationship (probably why it was Hagar that Sarah offered to Abraham) grew to a turbulent and high tension one. Hagar grew in rank and that intimidated Sarah. Sarah mistreated Hagar in one way or another and drove her away from camp so they wouldn’t have to be in each other’s presence and Sarah wouldn’t be reminded of her inability. An angel found Hagar in the wilderness with her very young child, Ishmael, and encouraged Hagar to return to her master Sarah. Sarah and Abraham were told by an angel of the news that a son was to be born between the two of them. Both scoffed and laughed at this announcement but sometime after the angel appeared, Sarah begot a son named Isaac. When she found the children playing with one another, she again grew angry and banished Hagar for good (Genesis 21:10-14). All this time, Abraham seemed to trust in God and give the reigns of the family affairs to Sarah. He remained very quiet in the feud between the two women who bore him children. When Sarah approached him about what to do with Hagar as she has caused her pain, he basically allowed her to do as she pleased. This was unusual in Sarah and Abraham’s time. Sarah and Hagar determined most of the story line at this point in their story. According to Hauer and Young, Abraham is seen as an obedient man, a role model for all ages.
His faith is continually tested through his story and especially with his son. Hauer and Young believe he was portrayed as so faithful to show how God rewards those who follow Him. They do go on to point out his faults also but to point out he was still a human with sins and mistakes. They use the first example of him passing his wife off as his sister to avoid his own death (Genesis 12:10-20). If when the Pharaohs had taken Sarah and had relations, God could not carry out his plan with a woman who would then be considered dirty. Abraham not only did this once but twice. Another example Hauer and Young used was when he took Hagar as a concubine, to hurry the promised child of the covenant along. When God renamed Abram to Abraham (Genesis 17:5), he was changing his name to mean “father of many (Hauer and Young, 61).” Understandably, when Sarah doesn’t produce children for him, Abraham, as does Sarah, came to understand they must provide Abraham with a woman to produce him a child. Having this child was important on Abraham’s end of the covenant with God but doesn’t realize that God is to provide that child; it wasn’t up to the humans to determine when and who the child would be. This is where Hagar is introduced to the story. The test from God here is that Abraham and Sarah didn’t have faith that He would provide a child in their own age. This leads into Hauer and Young’s last point of Abraham’s skepticism. When the angel appeared to Abraham to deliver the news of a child, Abraham has very skeptical faith in the Lord, his God. Abraham went as far as to laugh at the Lord about being able to have a child in such a ripe age. Not only does this final test fall onto Abraham but on his barren wife also who exhibits the same skepticism and laughter (Genesis 18:9-15). That faith became solidified at the delivery of Isaac from God to Sarah and Abraham. Abraham’s faith underwent its
largest challenge when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22) and Abraham went as far to raise the knife above Isaac’s head before the angel called out to him to stop. “In this collection of vignettes about Abraham and Sarah, we see not flat, lifeless characters who walk through a divinely ordained drama like robots, but complex persons, with strengths and weaknesses, to whom a promise is given, put in jeopardy, and renewed (Hauer and Young, 62-63).” Bellis finds Abraham as somewhat passive in his story when it comes to the child he had with Hagar and allows Sarah to do as she pleases. This brings Sarah across as a jealous and angry woman. This idea of them highly contradicts the role models that Hauer and Young see Sarah and Abraham to be. Bellis and other scholars think that Sarah is marginalized. Though she had some negative characteristics brought upon her through the jealousy over Hagar, she was never casted as a villain in this story. Instead, Bellis and others believe she was reduced and only brought up when her reproductive ability/sexuality was in question or of interest. The message of her impeding pregnancy wasn’t even delivered to her. Instead, she had overheard or was told about it, though she had the same reaction as her husband who received the message firsthand. Bellis finds Sarah as not a victim or a villain, rather somewhere in the middle (Bellis, 62). Sarah victimizes Hagar through her anger towards perhaps both Hagar and Abraham while she is the victim of her husband when he passes her off as a sister and becomes a victim again at the expense of society and value placed on ability to have children. To some extent, I agree with both the views of Hauer and Young and the view of Bellis. Though Hauer and Young see the couple as strong, faithful people with a few small faults, Bellis almost sees them as weak with potentially many faults. In Hauer and Young’s view, I agree that Abraham and Sarah are extremely faithful people. Traveling where God tells them to, doing as He says and trusting that He has a plan. Abraham even creates a covenant with God which shows God placed his trust in Abraham also. But I also sympathize with Bellis’ view in how passive Abraham came off within the story when it neared the time of the promised child’s birth. I think Bellis has the idea that Abraham suddenly becomes a passive character and “hands over” his power to Sarah because of some of the wrongs he has done. For example, Bellis brought up that some scholars believe Sarah had caught Hagar and Abraham in adultery after it was known that Hagar was pregnant (Bellis, 61-62). In the lens of that thought, I would agree with a lot that Bellis said. I especially agree with her idea that Sarah was not a victim and not a villain but somewhere in between. She takes on a negative role when she grows angry with Hagar and her husband for their possible adultery. The husband, the wife, and were so much more dynamic than the elaborate and carefully thought out stories usually told. The story and especially the characters exhibit the real struggle and real complexity of a human and the relationships formed between multiple humans. Sarah’s story especially points out how hard it is to pin a hero badge upon a person or a villain title, as Sarah displayed with her characteristics of both at many points in her life. The story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar is significant because God creates a covenant to make Abraham the father of a great people, of many nations that will carry out His word. How Isaac comes about, how Abraham handles his barren wife by accepting God’s will of closing Sarah’s womb, and from them on is perhaps one of the most important stories of faith in the Old Testament/Tanakh. All because of a wife, a husband, and a slave involved in a covenant with God.