intro to the study of the bible

Genesis 12:13

‘tell them you are my sister so that things will go well with me and I may be allowed to live because of you’

Genesis 16:4

‘when Hagar learned she was pregnant she began to look on Sarai with contempt’

Genesis 21:9

‘drive out this slave woman and her son, her son should not inherit anything, my son Isaac should receive it all’

Henry Sumner Maine - patria potestas

the fathers power - the father has ‘power of life and death’ over his servants, children and wife

Carol Meyers - assumption of patriarchy’s universality

women in ancient Israelite households were hardly oppressed and powerless, not subordinate to male control in all aspects of household life

Sharon Pace Jeansonne

a rivalry between two women, one who suffered because of her debilitating chilliness and the other because of the abuse she experienced in her powerlessness.

Elaine James

Hagar and Sarai as stock characters - Hagar as the outcast, Sarai as the virtuous wife

Esther Fuchs - Sexual politics in the biblical narrative

the Hebrew bible not only presents women as marginal, it also advocates for their marginality, it fosters a politics of male domination

Genesis 21:10

God refers to Hagar as ‘your slave woman’ instead of ‘your wife’

Genesis 22:10

then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son

James 2:23

‘Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness and he was called a friend of God’

Philo of Alexandria

Abrahams willingness to perform human sacrifice even though it is not custom in his country constitutes a completely new and extraordinary action

Genesis 22:6 - ambiguity of who has the knife

And Abraham took the wood of the whole-burnt- offering, and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took into his hands both the fire and the knife ..

Ellen Birnbaum on what Philo says

Philo asserts ‘supremely fair of body and excellent of soul’ - an embellishment to heighten appreciation for Abraham’s actions

J. Richard Middleton

Isaac would have been traumatised, especially since it was not his father that faltered but the angels that saved him

Shalom Speigel

quite possibly the primary purpose of the Akedah story may have been to introduce a new norm, abolish human sacrifice and substitute animals instead

Hermann Gunkel - etiological function

an explanation for the rejection of human sacrifice in Israelite religion

Genesis 12:3

‘all nations will be blessed’ through Abraham

Konrad Schmid on etiological function

Isaac asks ‘where is the lamb for a burnt offering’ suggest animal sacrifices are custom

Luke 1:3

I too decided as one having a grasp of everything from the start to write a well-ordered account for you, most excellent Theophilus