HAGAR AND ISHMAEL: A COMMENTARY

Aryeh Cohen

American Jewish University,
Los Angeles, California

A Journal of Bible and Theology

The task of this essay is to offer a Jewish interpretation of Hagar and Ishmael. To write a Jewish interpretation supposes or implies writing within the tradition of Jewish interpretations. 

What is it to write within a tradition? Gerald Bruns writes of the Renaissance practice of quotation as creating a tradition. That is, authors would quote prodigiously from earlier, and especially, classical works in order to place themselves and their own work physically in relation to that earlier work, thereby creating a tradition. Denise Kimber Buell has documented the practice among the early church fathers of claiming authenticity by way of filiation, or intellectual descent from one of the apostles. In the Muslim hadith tradition, authenticity is a function of a reliable line of tradition going back as close as possible to the companions of the Prophet. [DOWNLOAD COMPLETE]