Hagar
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Hagar ( Hebrew הָגָר Hagar , "stranger" ; Arabic هاجر Hajar , DMG hāǧar ), in the Vulgate Agar , is in the Old Testament the Egyptian maid of Sarah , concubine of Abraham and mother of Ishmael .
Biblical narration
Since the couple Abraham and Sarah seem to remain childless, Abraham impregnates the Egyptian slave Hagar at the request of his wife. The child born by her (as a slave, not a person in the legal sense) should, according to the legal opinion of the time, be considered the child of the mistress. Having become jealous, Sara humiliates the slave and Hagar flees. At the source on the way to Shur , an angel appears to her and asks her to return and to obey Sara. The angel prophesies to Hagar that she will give birth to a son whom she should name Ishmael . He became the progenitor of many peoples.
“The angel of the Lord said to her: I will make your descendants so numerous that they cannot be counted. The angel of the Lord said to her: You are with child, you will bear a son and call him Ishmael (God hears); because the Lord has listened to you in your suffering. "
Hagar calls the Lord who had spoken to her: El Roï (“God who sees me / looks after me”). That is why she calls the fountain Beer-Lahai-Roï ("Fountain of the living who looks after me"). It lies between Kadesh and Bered .
Hagar then returns and gives birth to Ishmael. 14 years later Sarah becomes a mother and gives birth to Isaac . Since Ishmael makes fun of Isaac, he and Hagar, at Sara's request, are sent away by Abraham. Sara does not want both sons to inherit together. At first Abraham is unwilling, but when an angel appears to him at night who confirms Sara's wish and promises him to turn Ishmael into a great people ( Gen 21: 12-13 EU ), he gives in and sends Hagar and Ishmael away with provisions . When her supplies in the desert have run out and her son is near death, an angel appears again to Hagar and shows her a saving well, which, according to Islamic tradition, is Zamzam . The Bible does not further identify the well. The angel also repeats the promise made more than fourteen years earlier ( Gen 21 EU ). The two stay in the Paran desert and Hagar chooses an Egyptian woman to be Ishmael's wife.
Christian interpretation
The story of Hagar and Ishmael, like that of Cain and Abel and that of Esau and Jacob, was an example of how the younger son is preferred to the firstborn to Christian theologians . They understood the disadvantaged older to mean Judaism and the happier younger to mean Christianity . The apostle Paul used the story for an allegory in his letter to the Galatians .
“You who want to submit to the law, have you not heard what it says? Scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one from the slave and the other from the free one. The slave's son was born naturally, and the free's son by promise. There is a deeper meaning in this: these women mean the two wills. One testament comes from Mount Sinai and gives birth to slaves; that is Hagar - for Hagar is the name for Mount Sinai in Arabia - and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, which lives in bondage with its children. But the heavenly Jerusalem is free, and this Jerusalem is our mother. Because it says in the script: Rejoice, you sterile, who never gave birth, break out in jubilation and exult, you who never went into labor! Because the lonely one has many children, more than the married one. But you, brothers, are children of promise like Isaac. But just as the Son who was naturally begotten then persecuted him who was begotten by the Spirit, so it is now also. But in the scriptures it is said: Offense against the slave girl and her son! For not the son of the slave should be the heir, but the son of the free. So it follows, my brothers, that we are not children of the slave, but children of the free. "
Hagar in Islam
In the Islamic tradition, Hagar is also the second wife of Abraham / Ibrahim . Deviating from the biblical story, he brings Hagar and Ishmael to Mecca . There Ibrahim discovers that the Kaaba , the first house of God built by the first prophet Adam , has been forgotten and has become a ruin. Ibrahim is announced to leave Hagar and his son in this place. Hagar's search for water in the desert is symbolically reproduced by the Muslims during the Hajj , the pilgrimage to Mecca. The holy source Zamzam is according to the Islamic view the source given to Hagar by God ( Allah ) in their extreme need .
As a result, Ismail becomes the progenitor of the Arabs , and he and his father are considered prophets of Islam .
The graves of Hagar and Ismail are said to be inside the semicircular white marble wall called Hatim on the northwest wall of the Kaaba .
Artistic design
Visual arts
The motif of the Hagar was created especially in Dutch art and in baroque painting (e.g. Hagar in the desert (Pittoni) ).
Drama, literature
- The expulsion of the Hagar. Tragedy by Dietzenschmidt 1916.
- Hagars Quell poem by Karl Gerok 1855.
- The son of Hagar socio- critical novel by Paul Keller 1907.
music
- Hagars Klage is the first complete work for voice and piano by the young Franz Schubert (D 5; dated March 30, 1811; text: Clemens August Schücking (1759–1790)).
- WC Handy and James Tim Brymn wrote Aunt Hagar's Blues in 1921 .
Individual evidence
- ^ "Hagars Quell" from the "Heilige Wasser" collection by Karl Gerok (1855), accessed on gedichte.xbib.de on January 30, 2014
Web links
- Thomas Naumann: Hagar. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.
- Bible study at the 32nd German Evangelical Church Congress with Prof. Jürgen Ebach (PDF; 129 kB)
- Bible study on the 32nd German Evangelical Church Congress with Archbishop Dr. Robert Zollitsch (PDF; 94 kB)
literature
Knauf, Ernst Axel . In: Anchor Bible Dictionary (ABD). Volume 3, Doubleday, New York / London 1992, ISBN 0-385-19361-0 , pp. 18-19.