Abraham, the Nations, and the Hagarites part 1

INTRODUCTION

Abraham’s Child ren in the

“Genome” andthe “Pre-Genome” Era

Recently, in an eye-catching article in the American Journal of Human

Genetics, Gil Atzmon and colleagues tackled the question “of whether

current Jewish communities around the world share more than a reli-

gious background” through genome-wide analysis. According to the

results, the different Jewish populations can be distinguished genetically

and can also be separated from non-Jewish populations. Hence the arti-

cle is entitled as follows: “Abraham’s Children in the Genome Era: Major

Jewish Diaspora Populations Comprise Distinct Genetic Clusters with

Shared Middle Eastern Ancestry.”1 The results indicate that contempo-

rary Jews share both religious and genetic history. The article’s authors,

who have been historically informed by scholars of ancient Judaism such

as Lawrence Schiffman, make it explicit that their study “touches upon

an issue that was raised over a century ago by Maurice Fishberg, Joseph

Jacobs, and others about whether the Jews constitute a race, a religious

group, or something else.” In the outcome of their discussion, the authors

now conclude that indeed, through their genomic research, “Over the

past , years, both the flow of genes and the flow of religious and cul-

tural ideas have contributed to Jewishness.”

It is the religious and cultural ideas about the Jews’ ethnic identity

as a genos which we study in this volume, together with their views

on other nations, and the way in which Christianity and Islam, from

their distinctive perspectives, relate to the Jewish genos. Central to our

enquiry is the narrative of Abraham. Jews, Christians, and Muslims

describe their origins with close reference to this, including the com-

plex story of Abraham’s relationship to Hagar (Gen  and :–).This

volume sketches the history of interpretation of some of the key pas-

sages in this narrative, not least the verses which state that in Abraham

introduction

all the nations of the earth will be blessed (Gen :–). This passage,

which features prominently in Christian historiography, is largely disre-

garded in ancient Judaism, prompting the question of how the relation-

ship between Abraham and the nations was perceived in Jewish sources.

This focus is supplemented by the question of how Islamic historiogra-

phy relates to the Abraham narrative, and in particular to the descent of

the Arabs from Abraham through Ishmael and Hagar. In studying the

traditional readings of these narratives, the volume offers a detailed yet

wide-ranging analysis of important aspects of the accounts of their ori-

gins which emerged within the three Abrahamic religions. Thus, the vol-

ume is about Abraham, the nations, and the Hagarites, offering Jewish,

Christian, and Islamic perspectives on kinship with Abraham. We use the

term “Hagarites” to designate the offspring of Abraham through Hagar

and their son Ishmael. As is shown in two articles in this volume, by

Ed Noort and Anthony Hilhorst, although the Ishmaelites and Hagarites

occur in the Old Testament, it is only later that the link between Ish-

mael and the Ishmaelites, and that between Hagar and the Hagarites, is

rendered explicit. The Hagarites are mentioned as Arab tribes on sev-

eral occasions in late texts of the Old Testament (Ps :; Chr :, ,

; :), but it is nowhere said that they are the descendants of Hagar.

Yet, as Hilhorst notes, there was an awareness that Hagar and Ishmael

were genealogically connected with the Hagarites and the Ishmaelites,

also because the Hebrew ending -î in the terms Hagrîm and Yiˇsme˘#e¯"lîm

is probably patronymic. By studying the relationship between Abraham,

the nations, and the Hagarites, we focus on the question how the kinship

with Abraham was perceived within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the

three so-called Abrahamic religions. This also involves the phenomena

of ethnocentrism and hostility towards the nations. As will appear from

the volume, the narrative of the blessing of the nations in Abraham (Gen

:–) is barely received and commented upon in Judaism. Christian-

ity in its turn, following Paul (as has been emphasized in the so-called

New Perspective on Paul), consciously justifies its existence with this nar-

rative and argues that true Abrahamites do not need to be genetically

related to Abraham. Islam, in its turn, again emphasizes a genetic under-

standing of Abraham’s children, in the sense that the Arabs are under-

stood as the genetic descendants of Abraham through Hagar and Ish-

mael.

The present volume is the result of a two-stage project. In October

, a Themes in Biblical Narrative colloquium was held at the Fac-

ulty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen,

devoted to Abraham and Hagar. Two years later, in September ,

under the co-direction of Martin Goodman, another colloquium was

devoted to Abraham and the nations. In this introduction, we will sum-

marize the main thrust of argumentation which runs through the various

papers.

OldTestament Narrative

The first part is devoted to Abraham, the nations, and the Hagarites in

the Old Testament. In his contribution on Abraham and the nations, Ed

Noort (Groningen) addresses those texts in the Old Testament in which

Abraham’s relationship to the nations is discussed. He first shows how

the prophetic texts on the cusp of the exile enrich the figure of Abraham.

His role as an exemplary ancestor grows and sometimes he surpasses

Jacob. However, the supposed universalism of Gen  is nowhere present.

The prophets do not portray Abraham as the ancestor who plays a role

as a mediator of universal blessings for all the families of the earth.

They focus exclusively on the future of exiled Israel. Subsequently, Noort

studies the oldest narratives, within the Abraham cycle itself, that focus

on the relationship between Abraham and the neighbouring nations:

the Abraham and Lot cycle, and the Hagar and Ishmael cycle. These

narratives do not have a universalistic meaning. The relationship to

Abraham or Israel is not decisive for the automatic reception of blessings

for all people. Finally, he shows how Gen :– breathes universalism:

blessings and all the families of the world take centre stage. He opts for

a reflexive translation of the nip#al in v. b: Abraham’s blessing will be so

great that all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by him/his

name. The accumulation of blessings indeed counteracts the dark tones

of universal judgement in Gen –.

In his contribution on Hagar, Ed Noort focuses on kinship with Abra-

ham in the narratives of Gen  and  on the birth of Ishmael (Gen

) and the sending away of Hagar and Ishmael (Gen :–). Gene-

sis  demonstrates the view held by sedentary groups about the strange

and dangerous people of the desert, who were nevertheless still fam-

ily, since the ancestor of both groups was Abraham. The sociological

setting of the groups living in and on the fringes of the desert can be

found in the Assyrian texts from the eighth century bce onwards. The

link to Abraham is made by the figure of Hagar, created in the image of

her son Ishmael. Genesis  is a late reworking of the original narrative

ABRAHAM AND THE NATIONS

Ed Noort

. Introduction

Sometimes reduced to a mere slogan, the concept of “Abrahamitic faith”1

is often used in the interreligious dialogues of today, in the context

of their difficult position within political reality.2 “Abrahamitic faith”

reaches beyond the mere fact that Abraham is a literary figure in the

ancient texts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. His specific role within

the traditions of these religions is of importance, and within all three

he has become the symbol for a new and decisive stage within religious

history.3 In this contribution, my focus is on the Hebrew Bible. More

specifically, I will address those texts within the Abraham cycle in which

Abraham’s relationship to the nations is discussed.

Naturally, the main focus will be on Gen :–, without doubt the

passage within the Abraham cycle which has been most commented

upon. This popularity already points to its function as the linchpin of

the primeval history and the patriarchal narratives. Whatever their role

or stage of the tradition, these verses address Abraham’s relationship

with all of the families and nations of the earth. For Judaism, Abraham

is the ancestor from whom the Israelite people sprang in accordance

with a divine promise. For Islam, Abraham is the father of Ishmael and

the grandfather of Esau, the ancestors of the Arab people from which

Muhammad sprang. For Christianity, Paul linked Christ and his believers

1 E. Noort, “.Mose ,–a,” GPM  (): –. 2 In his inaugural address Representaties van religie in het Nederlandse debat (Gronin-

gen; University of Groningen ), A.F. Sanders referred to the Islamic initiative “A

Common Word between Us and You” (Online: http://www.acommonword.com/index

.php?lang=en&page=option) of  Muslim leaders and the reactions on the Jewish

and Christian sides. In the Netherlands the reactions were minimal. After some time,

the Protestant Church in the Netherlands appointed a committee, and “open letters” play

a role in the debate now (). 3 Some examples of the reception history include: in the Old Testament Gen :; Isa

:–; : and in the New Testament Rom :–; Gal :–, , ; :–; Heb

:–; in Judaism Gen. Rab. :; in Islam Sura :, , ; :–; :–.