Abstract
For many people, Scripture is sacrosanct, and examining the character of the god of its 'story world' is taboo. Biblical characters tend to be viewed as models and not mirrors of the human situation. The Hebrew Scriptures are both the national history of a people and an utterly religious account of the encounters of this people with their God. Aspects of this national history do not always measure up to the ideals of the religion, nor do certain things taken for granted in a particular period in the text meet the standards arrived at in the ongoing development of revelation. 'Reading against the grain', the present article views the story of Sarah and Hagar from the 'downside of history', as an African American would.
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