I had never thought in depth about Hagar’s role in the Bible. I knew surface elements of her role, but I know for sure that I never envisioned her as black. Brown perhaps, but it had never been suggested to me that she was black. That was the first thing that caught my eye in our reading of “Reimagining Hagar: Blackness and Bible.”
The other thing that caught my attention was our discussion in class about how the conception of Hagar and Abraham’s son was likely not consensual. I have heard the story of Hagar being the slave of Sarah and Abraham and taking the role of surrogate for their son, but I never thought that Abraham likely raped Hagar to conceive this son. Thinking through it it makes sense to me now because Hagar was Abraham’s slave, and it has really made me reevaluate how I view women in the Bible. Sarah and Abraham viewed Hagar’s body as just a vessel to carry a son.