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Genesis 16 · a question people ask

Was Sarai and Abram's plan wrong?

Interpretation

The chapter doesn't pass a verdict. It reports the plan (16:2-3) and the pain that follows: contempt, blame, harshness and flight (16:4-6). Protestants read it two ways.

How Christians read it

Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.

Taking the promise into their own hands

God had promised an heir from Abram's own body (15:4), and Sarai tries to get one through her servant: "It may be that I will obtain children by her" (16:2). Some who hold this view also point to Paul, who calls Ishmael the son "born according to the flesh" and Isaac the son "born through promise" (Galatians 4:23), though Paul uses the story as an allegory of two covenants (4:24) rather than as a verdict on the plan.

Genesis 15:4 · Genesis 16:2 · Galatians 4:23-24

A story told without comment

The text simply reports what happened. God had not yet said the heir would be Sarai's son; that comes later (17:16, 19). And God cares for Hagar and blesses her son (16:10-11).

Genesis 17:16 · Genesis 17:19 · Genesis 16:10-11

From Favor's study of Genesis 16

Genesis 16: The God who sees

The Bible's first "angel" comes to a runaway Egyptian servant, and she becomes the first person in the Bible said to name the LORD: "a God who sees". Her son's name, Ishmael, says God hears. The plan that brought her there uses the words of the fall.

In Favor, questions like this come up right where they arise as you read, with the Hebrew and Greek behind the words and how the chapter leads to Jesus.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions