{"id":9970,"date":"2012-10-10T10:56:02","date_gmt":"2012-10-10T14:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=9970"},"modified":"2012-10-10T10:56:02","modified_gmt":"2012-10-10T14:56:02","slug":"hagar-as-woman-slave-and-wife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/10\/hagar-as-woman-slave-and-wife.html","title":{"rendered":"Hagar as Woman, Slave and Wife"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It is useful to discuss what is going on with Christopher Rollston at Emmanuel Christian Seminary<\/a> from the perspective of academic freedom. But it is also important to pay attention to the matter that sparked it all: Biblical studies, and what Chris referred to as the \u201cmarginalization of women\u201d in the Bible<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That terminology doesn\u2019t go far enough, in my opinion.<\/p>\n

In my class on the Bible here at Butler University, we have discussed issues related to slavery<\/a> and women in the Bible. The case of Hagar is an interesting one to consider. She became Abraham\u2019s wife, but did she have any say in the matter? She had been up until that point a slave, and in essence the change of her label to \u201cwife\u201d meant little in practice in terms of her status. But even that change in her status, with the implication that her mistress\u2019s husband will now begin having sex with her, is not in her control. This is a transfer of property. Here\u2019s a sample of what Genesis 16<\/a> says:<\/p>\n

\"\"Now Sarai,\u00a0Abram\u2019s wife, had borne him no children.\u00a0But she had an Egyptian slave\u00a0named Hagar;\u00a0so she said to Abram, \u201cThe\u00a0Lord\u00a0has kept me from having children.\u00a0Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abram agreed to what Sarai said.\u00a0So after Abram had been living in Canaan\u00a0ten years,\u00a0Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.\u00a0He slept with Hagar,\u00a0and she conceived.<\/p>\n

When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.\u00a0Then Sarai said to Abram, \u201cYou are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the\u00a0Lord\u00a0judge between you and me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYour slave is in your hands,\u201d Abram said. \u201cDo with her whatever you think best.\u201d Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hagar has no choice in whether to be a slave. She has no choice in whether to become the wife of Abram. She has no recourse other than to flee when she is mistreated by her owner. \u00a0And while the story shows God caring for her and showing her kindness, even God is depicted as addressing her as a slave, and it is Sarah, not God, who proposes sending Hagar away, in a manner that indicates it is a dismissal rather than a \u201crelease.\u201d Hagar\u2019s situation then becomes even more perilous, and it is regarded as quite literally a miracle that she and her son survive (see Genesis 21<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Is \u201cmarginalization<\/a>\u201d a strong enough word for the values the Bible assumes with respect to at least some women, and perhaps most or all all?<\/p>\n

It is not somehow unchristian to acknowledge honestly what is plainly there in the Bible. It might be unchristian\u00a0not<\/em> to be honest<\/em> about such things<\/a>. And Christians have long found the inspiration within the Bible itself \u2013 its call to us to do to others what we would want done to us \u2013 to overturn slavery, address the marginalization of women, and do much else. This is not an either\/or situation. We can recognize the Bible as reflecting human values that we cannot embrace, and as calling us to a higher standard of morality than some of its own stories reflect or its own authors managed to embrace in their time. But I think\u00a0Harold Kushner\u2019s excellent statement on this point<\/a>\u00a0puts it better than I have:<\/p>\n

We are always entitled to call the\u00a0Torah<\/em>\u00a0to witness against itself, that is, to apply its own moral standards to some of its passages. We do it no disservice when we let it teach us the highest moral principles, standards so high that the\u00a0Torah<\/em>\u00a0itself \u2013 the work of human hands and minds and the product of its own age \u2013 sometimes fails to live up to them. We show no disrespect in reading the Bible critically in this manner, providing we do it to separate the valid from the inaccurate, the permanent from the transient, not to refute the Bible\u2019s claims upon us. (Harold S. Kushner,When Children ask about God<\/a>.\"\"<\/em>\u00a0New York: Schocken Books, 1989, p.134).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Elsewhere in the blogosphere<\/a> and around the web: Mark Goodacre<\/a> chimes in again on the subject;\u00a0Jim Davila<\/a> suggests that Chris\u2019 treatment of the topic is uncontroversial and that Emmanuel should release a statement; Jim West<\/a> has an article in The Bible and Interpretation<\/em><\/a> in which he addresses the subject<\/a> with help from Martin Luther. UPDATE: Tom Verenna<\/a> replied to T. M. Law.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is useful to discuss what is going on with Christopher Rollston at Emmanuel Christian Seminary from the perspective of academic freedom. But it is also important to pay attention to the matter that sparked it all: Biblical studies, and what Chris referred to as the \u201cmarginalization of women\u201d in the Bible. That terminology doesn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,131,28,152,61],"tags":[298,302,903,1140,1835,1865,3035,3840,4316,5154,6989,10772,11055,11411,13825],"class_list":["post-9970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-christianity-religion","category-genesis-bible","category-judaism-religion","category-morality","tag-abraham","tag-abram","tag-authority","tag-bible","tag-christian","tag-christopher-rollston","tag-emmanuel","tag-genesis-bible","tag-hagar","tag-inerrancy","tag-marginalization","tag-sarah","tag-seminary","tag-slavery","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"\nHagar as Woman, Slave and Wife<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It is useful to discuss what is going on with Christopher Rollston at Emmanuel Christian Seminary from the perspective of academic freedom. 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