Go to Related Reading
About this book

Genesis

About this book

Hagar and the Birth of Ishmael

Chapter 16

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not given birth to any children, but she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Since the Lord has prevented me from having children, please sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her.”⁠ Abram did what Sarai told him.⁠ 3 So after Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years, Sarai, Abram’s wife, gave Hagar, her Egyptian servant, to her husband⁠ to be his wife.⁠ 4 He slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. Once Hagar realized she was pregnant, she despised Sarai. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You have brought this wrong on me! I gave my servant into your embrace, but when she realized that she was pregnant, she despised me. May the Lord judge between you and me!” 6 Abram said to Sarai, “Since your servant is under your authority, do to her what is right in your eyes22.”⁠ Then Sarai treated Hagar harshly, so she ran away from Sarai.⁠ 7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring of water in the wilderness—the spring that is along the road to Shur.⁠ 8 He said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”⁠ She replied, “I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai.” 9 Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority. 10 I will greatly multiply your descendants,” the angel of the Lord added, “so that they will be too numerous to count.”⁠ 11 Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “You are now pregnant and are about to give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your painful groans.⁠ 12 He will be a wild donkey of a man. He will be hostile to everyone, and everyone will be hostile to him. He will live away from his brothers.” 13 So Hagar named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen one who sees me!”⁠ 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi. (It is located between Kadesh and Bered.) 15 So Hagar gave birth to Abram’s son, whom Abram named Ishmael.⁠ 16 (Now Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.)

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 16:15 and Galatians 4:24

Hebrew Bible · New Testament

Share:

Summary

Genesis 16 shows Hagar and Sarah as mothers of Abraham’s heirs. In Galatians, Paul uses the story as an allegory where Hagar represents slavery and Sarah freedom, applying this to the Gentile debate surrounding their practice and inclusion.

Passages

Genesis 16:15

Hebrew Bible
13 So Hagar named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen one who sees me!” 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi. (It is located between Kadesh and Bered.) 15 So Hagar gave birth to Abram’s son, whom Abram named Ishmael. 16 (Now Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.)
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Galatians 4:24

New Testament
23 But one, the son by the slave woman, was born by natural descent, while the other, the son by the free woman, was born through the promise. 24 These things may be treated as an allegory, for these women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar represents Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.
48–55 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Galatians

References

"... Galatians 4:21-31 reveals the unexpected working of this ecclesiocentric hermeneutic. When Paul announces that the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar is an allegory (Galatians 4:24), the reader, conditioned by Paul's earlier adamant identification of Abraham's seed with Christ (3:16), expects a Christological reading of the patriarchal narrative. But Paul's allegorical reading fails to execute the anticipated identification of Isaac-Abraham's seed who was offered up as a sacrifice-with Jesus Christ. Instead, Paul reads Isaac as a prefiguration of the church: "Now we, brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise" (Galatians 4:28). The Christian community, as "children of the free woman" (Galatians 4:31), constitutes the antitype, the fulfillment of the figure, the true meaning of Scripture. Christ is not even mentioned in Paul's interpretation. What are we to make of this state of affairs? I contend that this Galatians allegory is no anomaly; rather, it discloses an essential aspect of Paul's approach to Scripture ..."
Richard B. Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989), 86–87.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Tags

Your feedback

Genesis 16:15 and Galatians 4:24

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library