Lamech the Elder and his 2 wives. Lamech was an early Hebrew ruler.

The Apostle Paul draws on the Hebrew social structure to contrast Judaism with the core Christian belief that the gift of salvation is embraced by faith in God's promises. In Galatians 4:21-31, Paul uses the story of Sarah and Hagar to illustrate the difference between salvation by grace through faith in Christ and the Jewish emphasis on salvation through obedience to the law. Sarah's son Isaac is portrayed as the child of promise, while Hagar's son Ishmael is portrayed as a slave to the law.

Painting of Hagar in the wilderness by Giovanni Lanfranco. It hangs in the Musée du Louvre.


Alice C. Linsley

Hagar was the Egyptian handmaiden to Sarah, Abraham’s sister wife. She was also one of Abraham’s concubines. Though she is presented as a downtrodden slave, it is likely that Hagar was highly cultured and moved comfortably in the circle of nobles.

As the Horite Hebrew clans practiced endogamy, it is likely that Hagar was the daughter of a Horite Hebrew priest, and as such, she would have been a skilled attendant to Sarah, and even as a concubine, she would have been a woman of high social status.

Sarah’s resentment toward Hagar appears to have had a long history. Some of the resentment may have been cultural. Sarah was from the region of Aram in Mesopotamia while Hagar is identified as an Egyptian. Sarah's resentment toward Hagar became blind jealousy after Isaac was weaned, when Ishmael was about 15 years old.

Genesis portrays Hagar as having a complex personality. In later life she is a strong and independent woman, contracting marriage for her son and apparently producing other offspring known as the Hagarites. They are mentioned in Psalm 83:6. The core of this psalm is believed to pre-date David. The Hagarites are distinct from the Ishmaelites in the Psalm 83 listing of allies, so it is apparent that Hagar (like Anah and Oholibamah) was regarded as a clan chief.

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”

Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. (Genesis 16:1-4)


Alice C. Linsley

Abraham is a pivotal figure of history. He is a sent-away son who established control over a territory that extended between Kiriath-Arba (Hebron) and Beersheba. His territory was entirely in the region of ancient Edom (Idumea) and he was kin to the Horite rulers of Edom listed in Genesis 36.




Abraham's first wife was Sarah, his half-sister. Sarah resided in Hebron. His second wife was Keturah, one of his patrilineal cousins. Keturah resided in Beersheba. Both Hebron and Beersheba were in the land of Edom, called "Idumea" by the Greeks. Idumea means "land of red people." Abraham's territory extended between the settlements of his two wives and was entirely in Edom.

It was the norm for Habiru rulers to have two wives. They often had two concubines also. Abraham's concubines were Hagar, the mother is Ishmael, and Masek, the mother of Eliezer. Neither of these sons was the "proper heir" to Abraham according to the Habiru marriage and ascendancy pattern. Eliezer was Abraham's heir according to Horite law, only until Issac was born. The proper heir for the Horite Habiru rulers was always the first born son of the half-sister wife.

According to Genesis 16, Sarah was barren and had given up hope of having a child. This is after she and Abraham had been living in Canaan for 10 years. During those years Abraham had already taken his second wife, Keturah. She born Joktan (Yaqtan), Abraham's first born son. However, Joktan was not Abraham's proper heir. As the son of the cousin bride, Joktan was named after his maternal grandfather in whose kingdom he would serve as a high ranking official. According to Genesis 25, Keturah bore Abraham six sons: Joktan, Yisbak, Midian, Zimran, Medan, and Shuah. The name Yishbak means “sent away.”

Abraham had four first born sons: Joktan, Ishmael (Yishmael), Eliezer, and Isaac (Yitzak), probably born in that order. Joktan became the head of the Joktanite tribes of Arabia. Yismael became the father of the Sinai Bedouins. His Paran settlement was on the way to Egypt as indicated by these words: This is the genealogy of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maidservant, bore to Abraham. And these were the names of the sons of Ishmael: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth, then Kadar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadar, Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah. These were the sons of Ishmael and these were their names, by their towns and settlements… (Gen. 25:12-16).

No sons are named for Eliezer. He may have been a eunuch, not necessarily a castrated man, but perhaps one who is impotent, celibate, or not inclined to marry and procreate for legal reasons.

Yitzak fathered Jacob (Yacob/Yisrael), and Esau the Elder. Esau and Jacob were contemporaries of Seir the Horite, named in Genesis 36. The initial Y in these names indicates divine appointment by being overshadowed by the Sun. It is the symbol of the long horns of the bull and represents a solar cradle.

Clans related to Abraham's wife Keturah and her father Joktan the Edler

The first born sons ruled among the related clans of Horite Habiru. Abraham’s people. However, the first born sons of wives ranked above the first born sons of concubines. Joktan ranked over Eliezar, and Issac ranked over Ishmael. Joktan was a governor in the southern settlements of his maternal grandfather (Dedan, Ramaah and Sheba) and Isaac ruled the northern settlements of his father Abraham (Hebron, Beersheba, Gerar and Engedi).

Sarah's barren state would have caused her even greater misery after Abraham took his second wife and began to bear him sons. Here we find echoes of the Rachel-Leah conflict and the Hannah-Penninah conflict. In these narratives, the scorned or barren wife is vindicated by divine action on her behalf. Her long years of waiting were turned from sorrow to joy.

See the pattern? We await the return of the Promised Son, the Heir to the eternal kingdom. He has overcome death by death. He will turn our sorrow to joy and wipe away every tear.

Related reading: Who Was Abraham?; Abraham's Sons; Abraham's Complaint; The Urheimat of the Canaanite Y; Abraham's First Born Son; Edom and the Horites; The Barren and Grieving Rejoice

Alice C. Linsley


Hagar was one of Abraham's two concubines and Sarah's handmaid. Abraham's son by Hagar was Yishmael (Ishmael) an Egyptian chief, as is evident by the initial Vav, a solar symbol designating a ruler. The Y indicates that he was a clan chief, as were these men: Yaqtan, Yisbak, Yitzak, Yacob, Yisra-el and Yeshua.

Yishmael's ethnicity was traced through his Egyptian mother, just as Jewish ethnicity is traced through the mothers. The idea that the Arabs come from Abraham by Ishmael is simply wrong. The Ar clans existed before the time of Abraham, and Abraham's Arabian descendants are traced through his first born son Yaqtan (Joktan). This is Yaqtan the Younger. He is named for his maternal grandfather in whose territory he would serve as a sort of Prime Minister.


Hagar's status

Alice C. Linsley

There is a good deal of misinformation about the connections between persons and deities of Hinduism and persons of the Bible. These are based on false or spurious correlations. Here are four examples:

#1: The Sanskrit word "Brahma" is a variant spelling of the biblical name Abraham.

This is incorrect.

The term "Brahma" is derived from the Proto-Dravidian root brih, which means to swell or enlarge. It is a reference to the Creator God whose emblem, the Sun, swells as it rises in the morning. The veneration of the rising Sun in Hinduism is expressed in the daily prayer ritual called Agnihotra.

The Old Arabic word for the swelling of the sun is yakburu, meaning “he is getting big” and with the intensive active prefix: yukabbiru, it means "he is enlarging." This has little connection to the name Abraham. However, it is rleated to the Proto-Dravidian word for a Sun temple, which is O-piru. Dravidian temples typically face east. The morning ritual of the priests was to greet the rising sun and watch as it expanded or swelled on the horizon.

There likely is a connection to the ancient Egyptian root bn, meaning to swell, and to the reduplicated form bnbn, but there is not an evident connection to the names Abram or Abraham.

In Hinduism, Brahma and his wife Saraswati are considered the founders of the worlds. In Genesis, Abraham is said to be the father of many nations. This is historically accurate since Abraham had many children, among them nine sons. Such a claim in not made in Genesis for Sara, however, since she gave birth to only one child, Isaac.

There is evidence of a common conception about ancestors who found nations, but an etymological connection between Abraham and Brahma, and between Sarai and Saraswati has never been demonstrated.


#2. The Sanskkrit word "Saraswati" is a variant spelling of the biblical name Sara

This is incorrect.

The Sarawati is a major river of India. The name of the river is a compound of two words: saras which refers to a body of water, and wati which is a Sanskrit suffix to indicate female gender.

Many rivers have "Sar" or Sara" as part of their names. Examples include the Sarawat River and the Saribas River in Borneo. Sarawat is also the name of the mountain range that borders the Red Sea in Yemen.

Sara is also Nilotic word associated with laughter (Gen. 18:12).The verb to laugh in Hausa, a Chadic language, is dara. Dara and Sara may be regarded as cognates since the letters d and s are interchangeable in Dravidian and in some African languages.

The Sarra are one of the largest population groups in Chad. Sara society is organized by patrilineal descent from a common male ancestor. There is a 3-clan confederation, such as characterizes Abraham's people. The qir ka are the eastern Sara, the qin ka are those living in central Chad, and the qel ka are the western groups. The Sara make up to 30% of Chad's population. About one-sixth of them are Christians and live in southern Chad.

The biblical name Sarah is also a title, meaning queen. It is derived from the Akkadian word for king which is šarru and the Akkadian word for queen which is šarratum.


#3. The Sanskrit word "Gayatri" is a variant spelling of the biblical name Keturah

This is incorrect. However, there is a parallel involving the idea of second or subordinate wives.

In Hinduism, Brahma's second wife is Gayatri. Attempts have been made to connect Gayatri with Abraham's second wife, Keturah. This assertion has no linguistic support. Keturah refers to fragrant incense or perfume. It is also possible that it refers to the Ketu people of Ra (God). The Ketu clans are known today as Ijebu (Nigeria) and may be related to the biblical Jebusites.


#4. The Sanskrit word "Ghaggar" is a variant spelling of the biblical name Hagar

This is incorrect.

The Ghaggar is a tributary of the Sarawati. Again, there is no relationship to the biblical name Hagar. Ghaggar is comprised of the words ghag-gar. The word ghag (also spelled khag) refers to river reeds, and gar means hidden. This is a description of how the Sarasvati dries up seasonally. It flows only during the Monsoon season, and at least half of the year it is marshy and full of reeds.


Related reading: Was Keturah Abraham's Wife?; Sara's Laughter; The Afro-Asiatic Dominion; Who Were the Kushites?; The Cultural Unity of Dravidian and African Peoples by Dr. Clyde A. Winters