Content area
Full text
BLACK AND JEWISH WOMEN
CONSIDER HAGAR1
This paper is written in honor of Clark Williamson, a mentor and friend.
Living in a post-modern age, we are acutely aware of how the social location of the reader or interpreter of a text influences the interpretation of it. It is impossible to read a text with complete objectivity. Our status, culture, and place in history are brought to bear on our reading of a text whether we are conscious of it or not. Just how much of an influence does the social location of the reader have on the interpretation of a text? This question has not been thoroughly researched, and will not be by me. However, I offer the following observations.
The latter half of the twentieth century witnessed the emergence of women educated to the highest levels of biblical studies. At the same time, Christian and Jewish scholars became more aware of the work that each was doing. We read the same text but from significantly different historical and theological backgrounds. I wondered whether African-American and Jewish women scholars would differ in their readings of the Hagar texts of Genesis 16 and 21. Jewish women typically look to Sarah as their ancestor and, perhaps, role model. African-American women have identified with Hagar, Sarah's maid. I expected that Jewish women would defend the actions of Sarah, and African-American women would sympathize with Hagar. I discovered that the outcome was more complex than that. The African-American women did not agree with each other in their reading of Hagar, and the Jewish women exhibited considerable diversity in their reading of the texts. Because this is a short essay, attention will be directed to only a few of the many studies of Hagar that are available.
Hagar's story is central to two chapters in Genesis (16, 21). It is alluded to in a third (25). Genesis 16 focuses on Sarai2 and her servant, Hagar. The narrator tells the first half of the story from Sarai's point of view and sympathizes with her. However, in the second half of the story, beginning at verse 10, Sarai disappears and the spotlight is on Hagar and her soon to be born son, Ishmael. Chapter 21 reports the birth of Sarai's...