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[Newbie]

If a traditional marriage is between one man and one woman, how do you explain Hagar?

[jimwalton]

First of all you need to get a bit of the flow of Genesis. Genesis is about the promises God made, and all the obstacles to those promises. Here, in the life of Abraham, God had made promises of land and progeny. In the previous section of Genesis, the land was threatened numerous times, but the jeopardy was overcome. Here we find obstacles to the promises of family: Sarai can't have kids. Bummer. And she's 75 years old at this point. It doesn't take a crystal ball to figure out the insurmountable problems here.

Biblically, you should also that though monogamy was generally practiced, there were no laws yet insisting on it. In other words, polygamy was not contrary to their law or their morals. Survival in a harsh land made procreation a high priority on their list.

Culturally speaking, concubines (servant girls) were brought into the family with numerous roles understood, and one of them was childbearing. Concubines didn't have the full legal and familial status as the wives did, but they were considered the legal extensions of their mistress, meaning that they could possibly represent the woman of the house in various business matters in shopping and trading etc., and they could also represent the woman of the house in the bed of her husband, bringing as many children into the world as possible so that some might survive. You may wonder, yeah, but isn't that just more mouths to feed? Yep. While polygamy was not against the law, or considered immoral, it was often not economically feasible. Someone like Abraham, however, who was wealthy in his culture, would be able to feed as many children as he birthed. So saying, concubinage would not technically be viewed as polygamy. Abraham was married to one woman and one woman alone, but given her barren womb, her servant's womb could represent her as a surrogate.

Across the ancient Near East, this was a widely sanctioned practice. Among the Hurrians of northern Mesopotamia, for instance, marriage contracts (pre-nups?) often specified that if a wife was barren, she MUST take steps (it was the law) to furnish a son through a concubine. (Notice in this story, Sarai, took the initiative and made the suggestion first.)

Another piece of interest, is that if Abraham did have children by his concubine, the children would by law be considered as belonging to the mistress, not to the father. This legality will come into play later in the story.