Wil Gafney on Hagar and Smashing the Biblical Patriarchy →

Wil Gafney, writing at Bible Odyssey:

Hagar is perhaps more epithet than name, ha “the,” gar “resident alien.” She is an African (Egyptian) woman or girl of childbearing age held in slavery by Sarah (Gen 16:1). Was the Hebrew-speaking audience who first heard her tale (and those of us who follow) supposed to believe that her Egyptian name just happened to sound like a Hebrew expression labeling her as other? Should we imagine that her enslavers didn’t bother with the name she had been given and called her that epithet so much it became her name as far as they were concerned? However much agency Hagar has—and it is substantial—her story is an element of someone else’s story. So no one bothers to ask, learn, remember, or record her (true) name. Her story appears in Gen 16 and Gen 21:1-21.

Despite “Bible Odyssey’s” weird name and ugly website I just stumbled across, this is an excellent resource from the Society of Biblical Literature with world class contributors. Just goes to show how many resources are out there, at least for the English speaking world, easy to access, but unknown to me.

If you’re interested to read a bit more from Gafney, start here: Smashing the Biblical Patriarchy. She doesn’t glaze over the raw, provocative details (e.g. rape, incest, violence) that are somehow easy to overlook if you grew up with a childish fairy-tale version of the Abraham and Sarah story.

See also: this thought-provoking lecture for Evolving Faith: A “Willingness to be Disturbed.” (Overcast)