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A review by funnellegant
Hagar the Egyptian: The Lost Tradition of the Matriarchs by Savina J. Teubal
4.0
Savina Teubal was a Jewish scholar of feminism, history, and biblical criticism. She subscribed to the documentary hypothesis of Pentateuch authorship, and this work explores the possibility of unearthing or reimagining a "historical" Hagar obfuscated by androcentric Bible revisionists. The book is republished under the title "Ancient Sisterhood."
If you can't engage with alternate theories about textual transmission without getting offended, this book isn't for you. But I loved it.
I wasn't nodding my head in agreement through the whole book. Teubal seemed to take some remarkable liberties with a few of the more ambiguous passages in the Hagar narratives, sometimes interpreted inconsistently, and I found one of her main hypotheses about the Desert Matriarch very far fetched.
She displayed a remarkable respect for and familiarity with religious customs and their regional peculiarities, ancient art, Sumerian, Egyptian, and Akkadian legal codes, and the nuance of language used throughout Genesis. This is a deep academic dive into the history of this passage's transmission, interpretation and impact. She made me raise an incredulous eyebrow throughout, but also caused me to confront some of my own unfounded assumptions about these verses. It was absolutely a labor of love, and I loved going along for the journey.
If you can't engage with alternate theories about textual transmission without getting offended, this book isn't for you. But I loved it.
I wasn't nodding my head in agreement through the whole book. Teubal seemed to take some remarkable liberties with a few of the more ambiguous passages in the Hagar narratives, sometimes interpreted inconsistently, and I found one of her main hypotheses about the Desert Matriarch very far fetched.
She displayed a remarkable respect for and familiarity with religious customs and their regional peculiarities, ancient art, Sumerian, Egyptian, and Akkadian legal codes, and the nuance of language used throughout Genesis. This is a deep academic dive into the history of this passage's transmission, interpretation and impact. She made me raise an incredulous eyebrow throughout, but also caused me to confront some of my own unfounded assumptions about these verses. It was absolutely a labor of love, and I loved going along for the journey.