Hagar’s Babylonian Captivity: A Roman Re-imagination of Galatians 4:21–31

Abstract

Contrary to long-established interpretations, Paul’s verdict against the slave woman Hagar and her son in Gal 4:30 is not the expulsion of “Jewishness” by “Christianity,” nor the affirmation of slavery and racism, gender hierarchies, or Islamophobia. What Paul wants to “drive out” is the accommodation of subjugated bodies and souls to the law of the colonial conquerors, as it is programmatically displayed in contemporary Roman iconography. “In Christ-ness” as radical solidarity with the “Other” includes the non-Jewish nations/Gentiles who for Paul are an essential part of Abrahamic Jewish-messianic identity.