Harsh Criticisms Of Hagar

Hagar is the woman some commentators think treated Sarai with disdain, while others view her as the victim of Abram and Sarai’s impatience and disobedience to God. In this paper I will review each commentators thought on Hagar in Genesis 16, and my opinion on their observations. This paper will be broken into four sections: Harsh criticisms of Hagar, Hagar as the victim, unbiased of Hagar, three different points of view, and the conclusion. Hagar is a maidservant, and therefore is only supposed to be treated like such. This is the impression I received from the book, Abraham and All the Families of the Earth by Gerald Janzen. Janzen opens the commentary expressing, “Male and female are called to help one another. Abraham and Sarai are peer

Bergant uses her title as a slave to further portray her life was not her own. The reading goes on to say, “Without being asked, she is given to a patriarch in order to produce a child that will not even be considered hers.” (Bergant 64) Furthermore, it says the child will be adopted without consent. Through Hagar’s eyes, she has no choice in the matter, and she is a slave to her

In these sections some authors were fair in their conclusions and other authors were a little more harsh and biased toward a certain character or two. Through reading these commentaries I’ve learned that each person has their own view on Hagar, and more importantly, the way the text is written depicts how the character will be portrayed. The way a woman is portrayed in the bible is dependent upon the author and their bias. Hagar may be the selfish one in this situation, but she could also be the victim of Abraham and Sarah’s impatience with God. It just depends on how you read