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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Hagar Biography HAGAR. According to the Book of Genesis (xvi; xxi. 9–21) handmaid of Sarah, concubine of Abraham, and mother of Ishmael. Sarah, having remained barren up to an advanced age, gave Hagar to Abraham for a concubine after he had been in Canaan 10 years, in the hope of establishing a family of her own (Gen. xvi. 1–3; cf. Gen. xxx. 3–9). Afterward she repented of her action and treated Hagar cruelly, so that Hagar fled into the desert, but returned on being comforted by an angel, and bore Abraham a son who was called Ishmael (q.v.). After the birth of Isaac Sarah urged Abraham to drive Hagar and Ishmael away, and, though reluctant to do so, the patriarch at God's command complied. The bondwoman and her son went again into the desert, where they were almost spent with famine when an angel appeared and prophesied greatness for Ishmael, and God showed Hagar a well of water. Hagar is said to be a "Mizrite," which is generally interpreted as "Egyptian," though some scholars think that it refers to the southwest part of Negeb (q.v.), while others, less probably, assume that it refers to a country in northwest Arabia. Many scholars hold that Gen. xvi and xxi. 9–21 are duplicate narratives of the same event; and this is not improbable. But the common assumption that the former was drawn from a source using the divine name "Yahwe," the latter from one employing the name "Elohim," is rendered very doubtful by the Greek version, the etymology of Ishmael (xvi. 11), where the original text read "El hath heard," and the name of the deity of the place "El roi" (xvi. 13). The story of the relationship of Hagar to Sarah, of the birth of Ishmael, of Sarah's treatment of Hagar and her son, and of the final dismissal of the pair appears to many scholars as an admirable illustration of the manner in which tribal conditions are portrayed under the guise of history. Hagar, they think, personifies a tribe that at one time stood in close relationship to some of the Hebrew clans. Rivalry ensued, and the result was a separation, which is pictured as a dismissal on the part of the clan regarding itself as the superior. Interpreted in this way, the various features of it seem to become clear. The opposition between Israelites and Ishmaelites leads the Hebrew writers so to construct genealogical traditions as to make Ishmael the son of the "handmaid," whereas Isaac is the offspring of the real wife, Sarah. As a justification for the separation of two nations having so much in common as Israel and Ishmael, it is represented (1) that Hagar, though the inferior, attempted to gain the supremacy, and (2) that Ishmael, the "inferior" offspring, failed to recognize the superiority of Isaac. The separation, which no doubt was voluntary on the part of the Ishmaelites, is therefore portrayed as a deliberate act of dismissal on the part of Abraham, in whom the genealogical traditions of Hebrews and Arabs are thus made to unite. The story of Hagar and Ishmael was well adapted for homiletical and allegorical elaboration, and hence both in the New Testament and in Rabbinical literature the subject is frequently introduced. Hagar is contrasted with Sarah allegorically by St. Paul (Gal. iv. 22 et seq.), who makes Hagar, the bondwoman, represent the earthly Jerusalem, Sarah, who is free, the heavenly, and contrasts Ishmael and Isaac in a similar way. A Jewish tradition identifies Hagar with Abraham's second wife, Keturah (Gen. xxv. 1), and another makes her the daughter of Pharaoh. The Mohammedans look upon Hagar as Abraham's true wife and upon Ishmael as the favorite son. Consult the commentaries on Genesis by Dillmann, Gunkel, Holzinger, and Delitzsch, and for further amplification of the Hagar-Ishmael tradition in Jewish and Mohammedan writings, Grünbaum, Neue Beiträge zur semitischen Sagenkunde (Berlin, 1901) ; Beer, Das Leben Abrahams nach Auffassung der jüdischen Sage (Leipzig, 1859); Weil, Biblical Legends of the Mussulmans (trans., London, 1846). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. X (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 555.
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