CHARACTERISATION AND PLOT(S) IN GENESIS 16: A NARRATIVE-CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

A narrative analysis of the plot(s) of Genesis 16 brings to the fore the motifs of barrenness, wilderness and divine encounter, and indicates that the text presupposes God’s choice of Isaac over Ishmael, which was more clearly emphasised in Genesis 17 and 21. At any rate, one of the major tasks facing a narrative-critical reader of Genesis 16 is to account for the author’s special concentration on the characters of Hagar and Ishmael in a narrative that basically concerns Abraham and his household. Does this concentration suggest divine election of Hagar and Ishmael? In this article, my aim is to demonstrate that the motifs of barrenness, wilderness, and divine encounter are narrative devices used by the narrator to underline in advance the ‘theology of separation’, and God’s compassion for and salvation of the afflicted. It also offers an analysis of how some factors in the narrative portray God’s and the narrator’s disapproval of the involvement of Hagar in the marital lives of Abraham and Sarah. This shows that Abraham and Sarah tried to bring about the fulfilment of God’s promise in their own way which is contrary to the plan of YHWH who had plans (of election) for Isaac. This implies that the concentration on Hagar and Ishmael does not presuppose divine election of them, it rather prefigures, among other things, that the place of Ishmael would be in the wilderness.