Dejuann Hayes
Essay Blog 6
When
comparing and contrasting Sarah in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur’an, there are some
differences seen in her portrayal although the stories are similar. In the Qur’an,
the messengers gave Sarah good news saying that she would bear children, Isaac
and Jacob (Q11:71). Sarah questions this and finds it strange because she does
not believe she can bear children in her old age. In the Hebrew Bible, visitors
come to Abraham, and one tells him, “I will return to you about this time next
year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!” (Genesis 18:10). Sarah overheard
this and laughed to herself, questioning how this could happen. The Lord asks
Abraham why Sarah laughed and said “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
(Genesis 18:14). In fear, Sarah denies laughing (Genesis 18:15).
In both the Qur’an and the Hebrew Bible, Sarah questions
God, not truly believing that she can bear a child in her old age. The
difference in the Qur’an and the Hebrew Bible is how the message is delivered. In
the Qur’an, messengers speak directly to Sarah, but in the Hebrew Bible the
message is given to Abraham. Also, in the Hebrew Bible, Sarah plays a larger
role and is mentioned more.
In the Hebrew Bible, Sarah is portrayed as having much
agency and autonomy. She has authority. In Genesis 16:2, she tells Abraham to
sleep with her servant since she believes she is unable to have children, and
in Genesis 21:10, she demands that Abraham get rid of Hagar and Ishmael,
because she does not want Ishmael to share inheritance with Isaac, and they do
in fact leave. Sarah’s power and authority is shown in how she treats her
servant, and it is even mentioned in Genesis 16:9 by an angel of the Lord that
Hagar submit to Sarah’s authority.
I like your analysis on the differences of how the message is delivered to Sarah and Abraham. You also go into great detail on how much authority Sarah has in the Bible but you could mention the Qur'an a bit more in that paragraph. In short, I think your essay gets the points across and is very well written.
ReplyDeleteRachel Robinson
You make a good observation about the how the message of Sarah’s upcoming pregnancy is delivered. It is interesting that in the Qur’an where Abraham’s wife has less autonomy than Sarah in the Hebrew Bible, the message is delivered directly to her. I did not take that into account in my analysis. I think you summarize the narratives very well, but I agree with Rachel that you could have benefited from more comparison to the Quranic text. I also think your analysis might have flowed better if the last paragraph was incorporated into the beginning. Overall though I think you did a nice job!
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