The Sanctity of Ishmael: A Christian Perspective
Hagar and Ishmael by Benjamin West (Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)
According to the Book of Genesis, Abraham had eight sons. While the six he later produced with Keturah are rather obscure figures, his first two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, forever changed the course of human history. However, while Isaac is honoured in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam for his sanctity, Ishmael has often been forgotten and even denigrated by members of the first two traditions, despite the fact that Genesis itself portrays both sons as blessed.
Before delving into Ishmael’s story in the Bible, however, it is important to say something about his place in Islam, since it was only through seeing the love and respect that Muslims have for him that I realized the need to reassess my own biases concerning Abraham’s “other” son. For you see, as Abraham’s firstborn, Ishmael is viewed by Muslims as his father’s heir. Yet, that does not stop them from holding Isaac in high esteem as well. In fact, the Qurʾan calls Isaac a prophet (e.g., 2:136), and it is not uncommon for Muslims to be named Ishaq in his honour. But, of course, from the two brothers, it is Ishmael who takes centre stage in the Islamic tradition. This also makes sense from a cultural perspective. Just as Isaac is prioritized in Judaism, and by extension, Christianity, for his connection to the Jewish people, Ishmael, who is seen as the progenitor of the Arabs, is favoured by Muslims.
The Qurʾan tells us that the Prophet Ishmael helped his father construct the Kaʿba in Mecca (e.g., 2:127), and the majority of Muslim scholars believe that God tested Abraham by asking him to sacrifice Ishmael, not Isaac. Even when most Arabs were polytheists, the memory of their ancestor Ishmael lived on among them. In imitation of his faith, some pre-Islamic Arabs adopted monotheism and Jewish practices, such as refraining from pork. Moreover, when the Prophet Muhammad began to preach the message of Islam to his fellow Arabs, he could remind them that by submitting to the God of Abraham, they were essentially returning to the faith of their ancient ancestors.
But what exactly does the Bible say about Ishmael? According to Genesis, Abraham and his wife Sarah were unable to have a child well into their old age. To rectify the situation, Sarah selected her Egyptian slave, Hagar, as the couple’s surrogate. However, after becoming pregnant by Abraham, Hagar, who probably had little say in the matter, began to despise Sarah. Having been given a free hand by her husband, Sarah is said to have mistreated Hagar to the point where the pregnant woman fled to the desert (Gen 16:1-6).
While in hiding, the angel of the Lord—whom the text strongly indicates was actually God himself—appeared to Hagar. He told her to return to her mistress and reassured her that God not only knew of her pain but would also bless her with countless descendants. In something reserved for only a select few, the Lord even provided a name for the unborn child: Ishmael, or, in Hebrew, Yishmaʾel (God has hearkened). In awe at having seen God face to face, Hagar referred to her Lord as You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees-Me, or El-roʾi (Gen. 16:7-16).
Thirteen years after Ishmael’s birth, God established a covenant with the ninety-nine-year-old Abraham and told him that Sarah, now ninety years old, would give birth to a son, Isaac. Interestingly, Abraham did not at first seem to embrace the idea of a second son, but instead prayed, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” Because of God’s love for the old man, he responded:
[A]s for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year (Gen. 17:1-21).
While Isaac’s unique place of honour is apparent from this excerpt, it is clear that God is with Ishmael and his descendants as well. Moreover, even though Ishmael seemingly remained on the perimeters of the covenant, Abraham still circumcised him in accordance with it (Gen 17:23-7).
Following Isaac’s birth, Sarah began to resent that the son of a slave should share in the inheritance of her own flesh and blood and asked Abraham to cast Hagar and Ishmael out from among them. While Abraham was disturbed by her request, God told him to obey his wife and eased the distraught man’s conscience by reminding him of his plan for Ishmael. Abraham then sent the boy and his mother away with some food and a skin of water (Gen. 21:8-14).
Hagar and Ishmael in the Desert by François-Joseph Navez (Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)
While wandering the desert, the two refugees ran out of water. Not wanting to witness her son die before her eyes, Hagar sat the boy some distance from her and began to weep. For the second time, the angel of the Lord—whom The Orthodox Study Bible says was again Jesus Christ—appeared to the woman. He told her to have no fear and that Ishmael would be a great nation. Miraculously, a well appeared before Hagar, who then immediately gave Ishmael something to drink (Gen. 21:14-9). Muslims believe that this well, which they call Zamzam, is located in Mecca. It is visited annually by millions of pilgrims, and bottles of its holy water can be found throughout the world. Furthermore, Ishmael eventually became an archer and married an Egyptian bride whom his mother found for him (Gen 21:20-1), producing twelve sons (Gen 25:12-8) and a daughter, who went on to wed Isaac’s eldest son, Esau (Gen 28:9). As an adult, Ishmael even reunited with his brother Isaac in order to bury their father (Gen 25:8-10).
In the New Testament, Ishmael is mentioned only once, and it is by St. Paul:
Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar—for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children—but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written:
“Rejoice, O barren,
You who do not bear!
Break forth and shout,
You who are not in labor!
For the desolate has many more
children
Than she who has a husband.”Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free (Gal. 4:21-31).
While the above passage may appear to be casting the persons of Hagar and Ishmael in a negative light, I do not believe that Paul is interested here in questions regarding their sanctity. Instead, the apostle, as he himself states, is reading Genesis in a symbolic, or allegorical, manner, one that is intended to contrast the Old Covenant, symbolized here by Hagar and Ishmael, with the New Covenant, symbolized by Sarah and Isaac. He is seeking to convince Christians of the need to reject the slavery of the Law for freedom in Jesus Christ and has simply employed such figures as symbols in order to advance his argument. In other words, the passage should not be read as a condemnation of Hagar and Ishmael as historical persons, but simply as the allegory Paul intended it as. Moreover, the practice of seemingly downplaying the importance of Old Testament figures in order to place the focus on a new spiritual reality can be found elsewhere in the New Testament as well. For instance, Jesus says that not even Solomon was arrayed as the lilies (Matt. 6:28-30) and that God could raise up children of Abraham from mere stones (Matt. 3:9).
Furthermore, Paul’s allegory does not preclude Ishmael from being interpreted as a type of Christ and Hagar as a type of the Virgin Mary. In truth, a Christian reading of Genesis reveals some striking parallels between their story and elements of the New Testament. For instance, in what may be seen as a foreshadowing of the Annunciation (see Luke 1:26-38), an angel appeared to Hagar, a woman without any worldly power, in order to tell of her son’s future glory. Moreover, Hagar and Ishmael were compelled to leave their home and seek refuge in the desert, which may be compared to when Mary and Joseph were forced to flee Judea in order to protect the infant Jesus from Herod, an event known as the Flight into Egypt (Matt. 2:13-23). Lastly, while Ishmael lived perpetually under God’s blessing, he was rejected by his own household. However, through his and his mother’s suffering, he founded a new nation. This is reminiscent of Israel’s rejection of Jesus to the point of death on the cross and the birth of the Church.
There are also at least two Christian saints who bear the name of Hagar’s son: a fourth-century martyr, Ishmael of Persia—who died alongside his brothers Manuel and Sabel—and a Russian Orthodox hieromartyr of the Soviet period, Ismail Bazilevskii. There is also the sixth-century Welsh bishop St. Ishmael of Rhos. However, from what I understand, his name is an anglicization of Isfael: a Welsh name unrelated to the Hebrew Yishmaʾel. Nevertheless, the example of the first two saints, particularly the Persian martyr, is rather interesting. This is because while Christian saints often have names that were originally pagan, usually of either Greek or Latin origin, they rarely, have a Hebrew name associated with an “unrighteous” Old Testament figure.
In general, I find it odd that Christians have rarely counted Ishmael among the saints. Even if one were to reject his existence from a historical perspective, this would still not account for the lack of veneration traditionally accorded to him, as there are many Old Testament figures with far more fantastical stories, e.g., Noah, Jonah, and Elijah, who have long been counted among the righteous. Moreover, Christians honour a number of saints from the Hebrew scripture whose sanctity is much less clear in the Bible than that of Ishmael’s. For instance, the Orthodox Church commemorates King Solomon as a holy prophet despite the fact that the Old Testament portrays him as having fallen away from God and punished with the division of his kingdom (1 Kgs. 11:1-43). The point here is not to call into question the saintliness of any of the above-mentioned prophets, but simply to encourage consistency. Afterall, Ishmael is never portrayed as having apostatized, nor does God remove his blessing from him at any point.
Icon of Isaac, Abraham, and Ishmael by Olga Bileski: Orthodox Church of St. Aidan, Manchester, England
Perhaps, some Christians have struggled with Ishmael because of his later association with Islam. This seems to have been the case in Judaism. In Ishmael on the Border, Carol Bakhos states that before Islam, rabbinic views on Ishmael varied widely, whereas after its advent, he was depicted more negatively. In Christianity, a connection between Ishmael and Islam has long been part and parcel of anti-Islamic polemics. For instance, St. John Damascene’s famous eight-century treatise against Islam is known as Against the Heresy of the Ishmaelites. In this work, John never uses the term “Muslim” but simply calls the followers of Muhammad Ishmaelites. Moreover, he states that they are also called Hagarenes because of their ancestry and that the term “Saracen” comes from the Greek Σάρρας κενοι, or the “destitute of Sarah.” The saint even connects Ishmael to Mecca, saying that some Muslims believe that he was conceived there. Yet, while John acknowledges the Ishmaelites as monotheists, he still disregards Islam as a Christian heresy.
However, some Christian thinkers have argued that the emergence of Islam among the Arabs was part of God’s divine plan. One such individual was Louis Massignon, who was both a scholar of Islam and a Melkite Catholic priest. He took special note of Abraham’s prayer for his firstborn son in Genesis, believing that he only agreed to exile Hagar and Ishmael once he was certain that they and their descendants would survive. Further, the exile was more than just that, it was a hijra that would lead to the birth of Muhammad. According to Massignon, Islam humbled the privileged children of Isaac, i.e., Jews and especially Christians. This was accomplished in part through some of the Qurʾan’s critique of the other two traditions, such as when it reproaches Jews for not accepting Jesus (e.g., 2:87) or Christians for hypocrisy, e.g., the failure of monastics to live up to their own ideals (57:27). Ishmael’s descendants, however, were not just gadflies in his view, but authentic believers in the God of Abraham, even if, as an orthodox Christian, Massignon disagreed with some fundamental Islamic teachings, such as the Qurʾan’s rejection of Jesus’s divinity.
In Genesis, we see God’s profound love for Ishmael and his mother. Without divine intervention, the two would have perished in the desert. Moreover, God not only protected them but made Ishmael a great nation. Yet, the Book of Genesis has not been enough to encourage Christians to honour Ishmael, as we have attached a great deal of our own baggage to him. It seems to me that in order for Christians to properly reexamine him, we must not only turn to the Bible but also to the Qurʾan, particularly one with helpful commentary, e.g., The Study Quran edited by Seyyed Hossein Nasr et al. While Genesis tells his story, the Qurʾan may be said to provide his living legacy. By studying the Bible and the Qurʾan side by side, Christians may not only discover Ishmael’s sanctity but also that of his many descendants.