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Sunday, 24 April 2011

GENESIS 16: 11-12 Are There Any Truer Verses in the Bible?

What Biblical verses best capture today’s events?

According to the Old Testament and a tradition enshrined in the Koran, today’s Arab Muslims accept that they are the descendents of Ishmael, the son of Hagar, Abraham’s choice for a wife who could bear him a child when he despaired that Sarah was too old. Following Ishmael's birth, the animosity between the two wives led to Sarah’s demand that Abraham expel her from their household. God heard Hagar's heartfelt prayer (Ishmael means "God will hear”) and made the following promise in Genesis 16: verses 11 and 12: "Behold, you are with child, and you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction. "He shall be a wild man; his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren."

The prophet Mohammed (c. 570-632 A.D.) claimed descent directly from Ishmael who lived approximately two thousand years earlier. The Biblical description of Ishmael's descendants fits the current state of affairs throughout the entire region of the Middle East from Tunisia to Bahrein where Islam holds sway and the Arabs imposed their faith, culture and language on older more sophisticated peoples and much older civilizations.

Tags: Ishmael, Muhammed

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Posted on 04/24/2011 6:44 AM by Norman Berdichevsky

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Comments

24 Apr 2011

Interesting that this rather unsavoury tale in the Bible - a wife offering a "handmaiden" (to put it politely) to her husband - has an Islamic feel. And the consequences were dire. Judaism and then Christianity moved on to better ways of doing things.

25 Apr 2011

Sue R

I understand that it was the prevalent law/custom of Ur where Abraham hailed from. It's not especially Islamic.

25 Apr 2011

It was the prevalent law/custom of Ur where Abraham hailed from. It's not especially Islamic.

It is now - that's the point. As with female genital mutilation, child "marriage" (ie rape) and other barbarisms, Islam enshrined and extended tribal savagery where Judaism and Christianity moved onto better, more civilised ways of doing things.

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