Keturah
The wives and sons of Abraham, with Keturah standing at the far right with her six sons. From the 1630 Venice Haggadah.
In-universe information
SpouseAbraham
ChildrenZimran (son)
Jokshan (son)
Medan (son)
Midian (son)
Ishbak (son)
Shuah (son)
RelativesSheba (grandson)
Dedan (grandson)
Ephah (grandson)
Epher (grandson)
Enoch (grandson)
Abida (grandson)
Eldaah (grandson)

Keturah (Hebrew: קְטוּרָה, Qəṭūrā, possibly meaning "incense";[1] Arabic: قطورة) was a wife[2] and a concubine[3] of the Biblical patriarch Abraham. According to the Book of Genesis, Abraham married Keturah after the death of his first wife, Sarah. Abraham and Keturah had six sons.[2] According to Jewish tradition, she was a descendant of Noah's son Japheth.[4]

One modern commentator on the Hebrew Bible has called Keturah "the most ignored significant person in the Torah".[5] The medieval Jewish commentator Rashi, and some previous rabbinical commentators, related a traditional belief that Keturah was the same person as Hagar, although this idea cannot be found in the biblical text.[5] However, Hagar was Sarah's Egyptian maidservant.[6]

Sources

Keturah is mentioned in two passages of the Hebrew Bible: in the Book of Genesis[2] and in the First Book of Chronicles.[3] Additionally, she is mentioned in Antiquities of the Jews by the 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian Josephus,[7] in the Talmud, the Midrash, the Targum on the Torah, the Genesis Rabbah, and various other writings of Jewish theologians and philosophers.[8]

Louis Feldman has said "Josephus records evidence of the prolific non-Jewish polymath Alexander Polyhistor, who in turn cites the historian Cleodemus Malchus, who states that two of the sons of Abraham by Keturah joined Heracles' campaign in Africa, and that Heracles, without doubt the greatest Greek hero of them all, married the daughter of one of them."[9]

According to Doctor of Anthropology Paula M. McNutt, it is generally recognized that there is nothing specific in the biblical traditions recorded in Genesis, including those regarding Abraham and his family, that can be definitively related to known history in or around Canaan in the early second millennium B.C.E.[10]

Relationship with Abraham

Keturah is referred to in Genesis as "another wife" of Abraham[2] (Hebrew: אִשָּה‎ ‎ Translit.: 'išāh Translated: woman, wife[11]). In First Chronicles, she is called Abraham's "concubine"[3] (Hebrew: פִּילֶגֶשׁ‎ ‎ Translit.: pilegeš Translated: concubine[12]).

According to one opinion in the midrashic work Genesis Rabbah, Keturah and Hagar are names for the same person, whom Abraham remarried after initially expelling.[13] This opinion was adopted and popularized by 11th-century scholar Rashi.[5][14] Possible justifications for this opinion include the fact that Keturah is referred to 1 Chronicles 1:32 as Abraham's concubine (in the singular),[15] and several other verses which suggest that the descendants of Hagar and Keturah lived in the same territory or formed a single ethnic group.[16] However, this idea was rejected by another rabbi in Genesis Rabbah,[13] as well as by traditional commentators such as Ibn Ezra, Nahmanides, and Rashbam.[5] The Book of Jubilees also supports the conclusion that Keturah and Hagar were two different people, by stating that Abraham waited until after Hagar's death before marrying Keturah.[17] According to modern scholar Richard Elliott Friedman, the identification of Keturah with Hagar has "no basis ... in the text".[5]

Genesis Rabbah interprets the name Keturah in accordance with the opinion that she was identical to Hagar: the name was said to be related to the Aramaic ketur (knot) to imply that she was "bound" and did not have sexual relations with anyone else from the time she left Abraham until her return.[18][19] The name Keturah was alternatively said to be derived from the ketoret (meaning "incense" in Hebrew).

Descendants

Keturah bore Abraham six sons: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. Genesis and First Chronicles also list seven of her grandsons (Sheba, Dedan, Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah).[2][3] Genesis records that Abraham gave them gifts and sent them to the East, while making Isaac son of Sarah his primary heir. Keturah's sons were said to have represented the Arab tribes who lived south and east of Israel (Genesis 25:1–6).[20] According to the Judean authors Josephus and Malchus, Punic people were descended from Epher.[21]

According to the African writer Olaudah Equiano, the 18th-century English theologian John Gill believed the African people were descended from Abraham and Keturah.[22][relevant?] According to the Baháʼí author John Able, Baháʼís consider their founder, Bahá'u'lláh, to have been "descended doubly, from both Abraham and Sarah, and separately from Abraham and Keturah."[23]

References

  1. ^ Schloen, J. David. "Caravans, Kenites, and Casus Belli: Enmity and Alliance in the Song of Deborah." The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, vol. 55, no. 1, 1993, pp. 18–38. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43721140.
  2. ^ a b c d e Genesis 25:1–4 (1917 Jewish Publication Society of America translation). "And Abraham took another wife, and her name was Keturah...."
  3. ^ a b c d 1 Chronicles 1:32–33 (1917 Jewish Publication Society of America translation). "And the sons of Keturah, Abraham’s concubine...."
  4. ^ https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/keturah[bare URL]
  5. ^ a b c d e Friedman, Richard Elliott (2001). Commentary on the Torah. New York, NY: HarperCollins. p. 85. ISBN 0-06-062561-9. Keturah. The most ignored significant person in the Torah. Rashi follows an old rabbinic idea that she is Hagar. But there is no basis for this in the text, and other traditional commentators reject it (Ibn Ezra, Ramban, Rashbam).
  6. ^ "Genesis 16:1". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2024-01-19.
  7. ^ Flavius Josephus (1930). Josephus: Jewish Antiquities, Books I–IV. Thackeray, H. St. J. (translator). London: William Heinemann Ltd. p. 117 (book 1, ch. 15, para. 238). Abraham afterwards married Katura, by whom he had six sons....
  8. ^ Harris, Maurice (1901). The Talmud Midrashim and Kabbala. M. Walter Dunne. p. 241. Archived from the original on 2021-07-09. Retrieved 2016-11-03. Rashi supposes that Keturah was one and the same with Hagar—so the Midrash, the Targum Yerushalmi, and that of Jonathan.... but Aben Ezra and most of the commentators contend that Keturah and Hagar are two distinct persons....
  9. ^ Feldman, Louis H. (1998). Josephus's Interpretation of the Bible. University of California Press. p. 134. ISBN 9780520208537. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  10. ^ McNutt, Paula M. (1999). Reconstructing the Society of Ancient Israel. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-664-22265-9. Archived from the original on 2016-12-07. Retrieved 2017-06-28.
  11. ^ Strong's Concordance, Hebrew word #376.
  12. ^ Strong's Concordance, Hebrew word #6370.
  13. ^ a b Genesis Rabbah 61:4
  14. ^ Rashi, Genesis 25:1
  15. ^ Singer, Isidore; Adler, Cyrus, eds. (1907). "Keturah". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York, New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Archived from the original on 2015-01-23. Retrieved 2015-01-23.
  16. ^ 1 Chronicles 5:18–20 refers to "Hagrites" (descendants of Hagar?) who later lived in the same region that was known to be inhabited by the descendants of Keturah. Also, in Genesis 37 the "Medanites" (apparently descended from Keturah) and "Ishmaelites" (descended from Hagar) appear to be interchangeable. Also, in Judges 8:22–24 the "Midianites" (descended from Keturah") and "Ishmaelites" appear to be interchangeable. See Yaakov Medan, Ki Karov Elecha: Breishit, p.195
  17. ^ Jubilees 19:11. Singer, Isidore; Adler, Cyrus, eds. (1907). "Jubilees, Book of". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York, New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Archived from the original on 2014-12-23. Retrieved 2014-12-28.
  18. ^ Singer, Isidore; Adler, Cyrus, eds. (1907). "Hagar". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York, New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Archived from the original on 2015-01-23. Retrieved 2015-01-23.
  19. ^ Neusner, Jacob (1985). Genesis Rabbah: The Judaic Commentary to the Book of Genesis: A New American Translation. Vol. 2. Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press. pp. 334–335 (section 61:4). ISBN 0-89130-933-0. 'Abraham took another wife' ... R. Judah said, 'This refers to Hagar.'
  20. ^ Orr, James, ed. (1915). "Keturah". International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Co. Archived from the original on 24 September 2018. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  21. ^ Stuckenbruck, Loren T.; Gurtner, Daniel M. (2019-12-26). T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism Volume Two. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 145. ISBN 978-0-567-66093-0. Archived from the original on 2022-01-30. Retrieved 2021-12-11.
  22. ^ Equiano, Olaudah (1995). The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings. Penguin Books. p. 44. ISBN 0-14-243716-6. Archived from the original on 2021-07-09. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  23. ^ Able, John (2011). Apocalypse Secrets: Baha'i Interpretation of the Book of Revelation. McLean, Virginia: John Able Books Ltd. p. 219. ISBN 978-0-9702847-5-4. Archived from the original on 2015-07-23. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
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