Abraham: One God Three Wives Five Religions

The next part of Genesis—Chapter 16—opens with the news that “Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children.”² Because Sarah has been barren since the beginning of her marriage, and because—as scripture suggests—Abraham needs children to continue the line of inheritance, she approaches Him with a suggestion.

“Behold,” Sarah says, “Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her.”³ Sarah makes this generous offer because it was the custom—perhaps even the law—that a wife who couldn’t produce children was obligated to find a second wife with whom the husband could try to beget children. When the baby was born, it would become the adopted child of the first wife and, if male, would become her husband’s heir. And that is how Hagar, the Egyptian, who was perhaps a daughter of a pharaoh, found herself in the position of assuming wifely duties in regard to Abraham.

No one has recorded Hagar’s reaction to being pushed into the position of becoming a mother, but Abraham agrees to the arrangement. Conception takes place on—tradition says—the very first night, and over the next several months, Genesis outlines a drama worthy of the most imaginative soap opera. As soon as Hagar is sure she’s pregnant, she becomes contemptuous of Sarah and behaves badly toward her.

What did Hagar do? Scripture is mute, but Jewish sources give this account: Hagar is having a difficult time with her pregnancy, and Sarah is concerned. So, when friends stop by to visit Sarah, she asks them to visit Hagar, too. Hagar, rather than being grateful to Sarah for the extra attention, begins denigrating her. She is even bold enough to suggest that Sarah’s barren condition is due to her lack of spirituality. “My lady Sarah is not inwardly what she appears to be outwardly. She makes the impression of a righteous, pious woman, but she is not, for if she were, how could her childlessness be explained after so many years of marriage, while I became pregnant at once?”⁴

Whether due to backbiting or something else, the unpleasantness between Sarah and Hagar becomes so annoying that Sarah complains to Abraham. He refuses to take sides, replying that because Sarah is the mistress of the household, she has the right to do what she pleases with her servant.

The upshot, Genesis reports, is that Sarah deals harshly with Hagar. What kind of thing does this mean? What did she do? Historical evidence indicates that if a wife gave a servant to her husband as a concubine, and if this servant subsequently claimed equality with her mistress because she bore children, the mistress could exact retribution by demoting the woman to her former station as servant. Plus, if the concubine spoke insolently to her mistress, her mouth could be scrubbed out with a quart of salt.

Tradition paints an even more vivid picture: Sarah removes a slipper, slaps Hagar with it, and then forbids Hagar to sleep with Abraham any longer.

In considering the animosity between the wives, should we presume that none of this happened literally? Is the antagonism sketched out in Genesis between wife and concubine not really about the women of four thousand years ago but primarily a sad prophecy of the attitudes that many of the descendants of Abraham will have toward one another?

Whatever the mystical truth of the matter, the result of the disagreement as witnessed in the Old Testament is that Hagar runs away. She turns to the south and begins following a path across the wilderness—the Negev desert and the Sinai Peninsula—separating her from her native land of Egypt.* Considered physically, Hagar is doing what many young women do in difficult circumstances; she’s running home to mama. Considered mystically, Hagar is abandoning monotheism and returning to the polytheistic faith she knew as a child. Or, using the symbolism about Egypt that was contained in Lot’s story, Hagar is headed to a place that has been well-watered but has resisted accepting a new Revelation from God.

While Hagar is in the wilderness, she sits down to rest near a gushing spring of water. While she is resting, she is approached by a visitor and given a message that will change her life: “And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness … And he said, Hagar, Sarai’s maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.”⁵

This astonishing event firmly establishes Hagar’s importance. It is the very first appearance of an angel in the Bible and one of only four occurrences of an angel speaking with a woman. After visiting Hagar, hundreds of years will pass before a second visit to a woman, when the honor will go to the mother of Samson. The third appearance will be to Mary, the mother of Jesus. The fourth biblical appearance is not to a single woman but to a group of them, including Mary Magdalene, who enter the cave where Jesus’ body is entombed. That’s it.

In visualizing Hagar’s angel, it would be viscerally satisfying to sketch an outline of the unearthly creature on a piece of paper, but a thorough reading of scripture frustrates any such attempt. The characteristics assigned to these extraterrestrial beings are too contradictory to be captured by pen, pencil, or brush. Angels are creatures fashioned of fire, yet they are also flying seraphim with six wings as well as awesome apparitions with faces like lightning. They occasionally have the features of a man, are sometimes dressed in dazzling robes, and at least one model comes complete with feet that gleam like burnished bronze. No two, it would seem, are alike.*

Furthermore, an angel is not created from earthly clay. It is, as both the Old and New Testaments subtly but surely point out, an ethereal “vision” that one cannot see or appreciate without experiencing a spiritual awakening that has “opened the eyes.” In the Bahá’í writings, angels are described as “the confirmations of God and His celestial powers.” The word is also used to refer to people who have become so spiritual that they have “severed all ties with this nether world, have been released from the chains of self and the desires of the flesh, and anchored their hearts to the heavenly realms of the Lord.” These words suggest that angelic images are used in sacred scripture as a means of imparting heavenly truths, revealing glimpses of the future, or vivifying otherwise inexplicable mystical experiences. One should not, therefore, expect to capture the fluttering of an angel’s wing on even the most sophisticated of cameras.⁶

When Hagar is visited by an angel, she is encountering spiritual truth in a form too powerful for her to deny. She understands her responsibility and realizes that Egypt is not her destiny. She will have to return to the tent of Abraham and Sarah: “And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.”⁷

Enthralled by the angelic voice, Hagar realizes she will have a boy whose name will reflect the fact that God has heard and understood her troubles: “And the angel of the LORD said to her, Behold, you are with child and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Ishmael; because the LORD has heard your affliction.”⁸ Ishmael, in translation, means God hears.

Hagar is given to understand that through Ishmael, she will have many descendants. The “angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.”⁹ This echoes the promise already received by Abraham, that His descendants will be multitudinous.

Hagar also learns from the angel what the life of her son will be like. The description of Ishmael isn’t one that most mothers would find comforting, though looking at four translations gives a better sense of the message being conveyed.

He will be a wild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, And everyone’s hand will be against him; And he will live to the east of all his brothers.¹⁰

And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brothers.¹¹

He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.¹²

And he will be a wild ass of a man—his hand against all, the hand of all against him, he will encamp in despite of all his kin.¹³

Taking the information apart phrase by phrase, it is intriguing to learn that the wild ass or wild donkey reference may be an idiom that is not connected with innate character but indicates that Ishmael and his descendants will, like a wandering wild donkey, lead a nomadic rather than a settled life.¹⁴

In the phrase describing Ishmael’s hand as being “against every man and every man’s hand against him,” the Hebrew word used for hand has an underlying sense of power and movement in a certain direction. Thus the phrase could indicate the problems that Ishmael (and his descendant, Muḥammad) will encounter when preaching monotheism to tribes who resist the movement toward one God. He will push the powerful hand of belief toward them, but they will push back against him.

As for living “to the east” or “in the presence of” or “in hostility toward” his brothers, the differing versions demonstrate just how strongly one’s bias can influence a translation and how perilous it can be to rely on a single point of view. The original Hebrew idiom is ‘al pěnê, an expression that literally means before the face of or in front of and does not necessarily carry an overtone of hostility or conflict.¹⁵ ‘Al pěnê can also have a geographic connotation, and that is the understanding used by translators who indicate that Ishmael will live “to the east” of Canaan, which is where Arabia is. Others simply indicate that he will be “in the presence of” his brothers. A few, like the relatively recent New International Version, seem much more eager to interpret the original idiom in light of current world problems, and they have decided that Ishmael’s descendants will live “in hostility” with the religions founded by his brothers. Others take exactly the opposite approach, feeling Ishmael is destined to live and survive in spite of encroachments made by his brethren—i.e., he will “encamp in despite of his kin.”

Hagar is astonished by her encounter with divine truth in the form of an angel, and she calls out to the heavens in wonder, shocked that God has seen her. She is so surprised to have survived such a disquieting event that she asks, “Have I even stayed alive after seeing him?”¹⁶

In gratitude and in recognition of the truth of the existence of God, Hagar gives the spring of water by which she has rested a name: Beerlahairoi, “The well of the Living One, my beholder.”¹⁷ And then she heeds the advice she has received. Hagar returns to her mistress, Sarah, and bears a son, whom she names Ishmael.

* Genesis Shur, the place mentioned in connection with the path of Hagar’s flight, is thought to be in a desert area of the Sinai peninsula.

* Varying descriptions of angels can be found in Exodus 3:2 (New Living Translation), Isaiah 6:2 (New Living Translation), Daniel 10:5–6 (New Revised Standard Version), Qur’án 35:1 (Yusuf Ali), and Luke 24:4 (New Living Translation).