This post will be a review and expansion of Safwat Marzouk’s chapter, “Interrogating Identity: A Christian Egyptian Reading of the Hagar-Ishmael Traditions,” in Colonialism and the Bible: Contemporary Reflections from the Global South.

This article can be examined through the lens of what scholars of religion call “lived religion.” Lived religion refers to religion as it is experienced and practiced in the everyday lives of people rather than merely through official doctrines and institutions (Knibbe & Kupari, 2020). Jesse Zink provides an example of lived religion in his examination of Christianity among the Dinka of South Sudan. He details how Christianity appeared to offer solutions to real-world problems faced by the Dinka during periods of conflict and upheaval (Zink, 2020, p. 68). The people of Sudan also believed that they were mentioned in the Bible, and new Sudanese Christians in the twentieth century constructed aspects of their identity around their perceived connection to the biblical land of Cush (Zink, 2020, p. 170).

Marzouk explains how Egyptian Christians face an interpretive dilemma when they read and analyze the stories of the Hebrew Bible. There is a negative portrayal of Egypt in the Hebrew Scriptures as a house of slavery (Exod. 20:2; Deut. 8:14). Egypt also becomes represented as a monster of chaos in Ezekiel 29 and is viewed as a threat to Israelite identity in Jeremiah 40–42 (Marzouk, 2018, p. 5).

Marzouk notes, “I believe reading the Hebrew Bible in a Christian Egyptian context raises questions about identity” (Marzouk, 2018, pp. 5–6). Similar to my previous post on dual identities in Esther, this article presents a dilemma. On the one hand, it is vital for Christians to continue reading the Hebrew Bible because it is Scripture despite its negative portrayal of Egypt.

Marzouk further notes that religious affiliation is determined at birth and is listed on identification cards, even if one is not a serious practitioner of the stated faith (Marzouk, 2018, p. 6). Religious identity is viewed as crucial and has also contributed to conflict between the Christian minority and Muslim majority during the past four decades (Marzouk, 2018, p. 6).

Ayman Ibrahim, a scholar of Islamic history and a Coptic Christian born in Egypt, explains that Christians are recognized as citizens but face barriers to advancement within Egyptian society due to the dominance of Islam (Ibrahim, 2020, p. xi). He was surrounded by the recitation of the Qur’an even as a non-Muslim in Cairo, hearing it from loudspeakers outside mosques and in taxis.

The minority status of Christians such as Ibrahim and Marzouk has led to questions regarding how the Hebrew Bible can be appropriated in today’s world. Additionally, the political realities created by the wars between Egypt and Israel in 1967 and 1973 raise further questions for Middle Eastern Christians.

As Egyptian Christians struggle with constructing their identity in light of the negative portrayal of Egypt in the Hebrew Bible, two approaches present themselves. The first approach discards or minimizes engagement with the text because it is perceived as offensive. This approach involves limiting engagement with the Hebrew Bible in order to maintain aspects of political and cultural identity.

In a similar fashion, many Christians from Arab countries do not frequently read or preach from the Old Testament. Their reluctance is grounded in Old Testament depictions of God as violent, bloody, and discriminatory toward nations outside Israel. In the opening chapter, “Arab Christians and the Old Testament,” Magdi Sadiq Gendi argues that these concerns have influenced how some Arab Christians approach the Hebrew Scriptures (Zondervan, 2019, p. 11).

When Arab Christians do this, they adopt an approach that bears some resemblance to that of the second-century Christian teacher Marcion. Marcion held that the God of the Old Testament was distinct from the loving Father revealed by Jesus and rejected the Old Testament as Christian Scripture, even though he was familiar with its contents.

In response to this tendency, Gendi notes, “the danger in their position lies not only in their misunderstanding of religious texts and wrong approach to the interpretation of God’s Word, but also in their allowing social and political changes to overshadow his Word” (Faris & Saleh, 2019, p. 11).

The second approach is a more allegorical reading that views the Egypt of the Bible as a symbol for something else. In this reading, Christians should identify with the Israelites rather than with the Egyptians (Marzouk, 2018, p. 6).

Christian Egyptians create different interpretive zones in which they maintain religious and political facets of their identity independently. Some readers interpret passages that speak favorably of Egyptians literally while allegorizing passages that portray Egyptians negatively (Marzouk, 2018, p. 7).

When reading the stories of Hagar and Ishmael, many Egyptian Christians avoid reading them from the perspective of these two figures and instead identify with Sarah and Isaac. This creates an interpretive framework built on binary oppositions in which Sarah and Isaac represent the Christian minority, while Hagar and Ishmael represent the Muslim majority.

This dualistic reading is analogous to Paul’s discussion in Galatians 4:21–31, where he contrasts Hagar and Ishmael with Sarah and Isaac. Paul encourages believers to identify with the children of promise rather than the children of slavery.

Paul creates a binary between Hagar/Ishmael and Sarah/Isaac in which Sarah represents the preferable position for believers (Marzouk, 2018, p. 8). On page 10, Marzouk examines the components of identity as elaborated by Homi Bhabha. Identity can include liminal and interstitial dimensions that complicate rigid constructions of self and other (Marzouk, 2018, p. 10). Marzouk notes that in relation to Egyptian Christians, “the self and the other represent the relation between the political and religious facets of identity” (Marzouk, 2018, p. 10).

Reading the Hebrew Scriptures as a Christian Egyptian can be compared to living Hagar’s story. One encounters affliction and rejection, yet also encounters God in the midst of suffering. However, many Egyptian Christians have ignored the story of Hagar and Ishmael because Ishmael is associated with Muslims. Therefore, in resisting marginalization, they reject association with Hagar and instead associate themselves with Sarah.

Marzouk argues that “the portrayal of Ishmael as an interstitial character provides a model not only for some hybrid returnees from the exile in the Persian province of Yehud, he also embodies Christian Egyptian readers of the Hebrew Bible and invites them to embrace their identity as both Christians and Egyptians” (Marzouk, 2018, p. 21).

Dual identities will continue to exist within our twenty-first-century world. A variety of social, historical, political, and national factors can lead individuals to engage with a text in ways that differ from others. Exploring these dual identities allows scholars of religion to appreciate the diversity of biblical interpretation and the many ways religious texts are applied in contemporary life.

The examples provided by Zink and Marzouk demonstrate how lived religion functions in practice. Sudanese Christians and Egyptian Christians both engage the Bible through their lived experiences, yet those experiences lead them toward different interpretations and applications of biblical texts. Examining these differences helps us better understand how religion is not merely believed but lived.

References

Ibrahim, A. (2020). A concise guide to the Qur’an: Answering thirty critical questions. Baker Academic.

Knibbe, K., & Kupari, H. (2020). Theorizing lived religion: Introduction. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 35(2), 157–176. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2020.1759897

Marzouk, S. (2018). Interrogating identity: A Christian Egyptian reading of the Hagar-Ishmael traditions. In T.-S. B. Liew & F. F. Segovia (Eds.), Colonialism and the Bible: Contemporary reflections from the Global South (pp. 3–30). Lexington Books.

Zink, J. (2020). Christianity and catastrophe in South Sudan: Civil war, migration, and the rise of Dinka Anglicanism. Baylor University Press.

Zondervan. (2019). Arabic Christian Theology: A Contemporary Global Evangelical Perspective. Zondervan Academic.