Last week, I finished Edward Said’s Orientalism, and I could not help myself thinking about how the way Orientalism infects our reading of Scripture. One of the largely unchallenged biases we read into the story of Ishmael in Genesis 16 is our attitudes towards “the angry violent Arab” trope. I have heard dispensationalist sermons claiming that God’s promise to Hagar and for Ishmael is one in which the Arabs will grow numerous, but they will still be an enraged, uncontrollable group of people, since Ishmael is a “wild” man. This works well with war-mongering pre-millenials and their hunger for a new era of Crusades. However, nothing in the text says anything about the nature of the religions for Ishmael’s descendents. Islam. It is an unnceccesary yet convenient reading, especially in a post-9/11/01 world. Even the more liberal interpretations within Protestantism that may seem to favor interreligious dialogue, fall in line with Orientalism; the idea that Ishmael remains the timeless Arab goes unchecked. That is, until today.
The notion that a human being immutably represents his future progeny continues to be a problem in late modernity and Christianity; if you recall, in my post debunking the Curse of Ham, I rejected Canaan as being the essential black criminal male rapist, one of the many stereotypes that propped up African enslavement. It would only be just for me to start to dismantle our imperialist readings of Hagar & Ishmael.
So if Ishamel is not our Essential Oriental, are there any other more liberative readings of the text? I would say yes.
First, let us start with Ishmael’s mother’s name: Hagar. Hagar resembles the Hebrew term hager, meaning “resident alien” “stranger” or “sojourner.” In the context of Genesis 15:13, whereby God promises Abraham’s offspring will be “ger” or aliens in a foreign land for 400 years is a reminder for the Jew in exile that part of their covenant with YHWH entails justice for the resident alien. Fast forward to Genesis 20 , and Abraham himself is considered a “ger” (20:1; 21:23; 21:34), and receives hospitality and compassion from Abimelech king of GERar. This treatment should be seen in stark contrast to Sarah’s banishment of Hagar and Ishmael. Finally, Clare Amos, whose article “Genesis” I am depending upon in the translation of the Hebrew noun “ger,” suggests that Genesis 16:12 is fraught with ambiguity, and that it really does not have to mean that Ishmael “would live at odds” with Isaac’s children. She prefers to hold this reading in tension with another possible translation that Ishmael would live “alongside his brothers.” This allows us to understand the image of Isaac and Ishmael burying Abraham in Genesis 25:9, in Hebron [the city where David begins his reign as king, btw], as a kind of closure.
There is much to learn here for our 21st century approaches to immigration. Thanks to Celucien Joseph, I learned of Congressman Luis Gutierrez’s protest against the President’s immigration policy, and rightly so. While there are those on the Left worried about the Arizona S.B. 1070 law that was passed, hardly anyone speaks out against the President allowing over 1 million deportations, splitting up families, handing over children to the state. During African enslavement, separating families was the norm; I guess somethings never change. At least in the story of Hagar and Ishmael, they are kept together as a family. I believe that the best way forward, and the most pro-family position, is to aim for comprehensive immigration reform, one in which by law, legal authorities would not be allowed to take away parents from young children. Anti-Immigration, pro-deportation activists, while claiming they are for limited government, actually are supporting MORE power to the government. The small government and the more compassionate position is Comprehensive Immigration Reform, like the one groups such as Christians for CIR are promoting.
For more, please see the Global Bible Commentary, pages 1-16
Related articles
- Did Abel Deserve To Die?: Mosala’s Postcolonial Reading of Genesis 4:1-16 (politicaljesus.com)
- Good News For Wealthy Alone: Mosala’s Postcolonial Reading of Luke 1 & 2 (politicaljesus.com)
- The Fall to Empire (politicaljesus.com)
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