The Sign Of Ishmael

The Book of J gives us an Ishmael who is a wild and contentious hunter; his importance in the unfolding of the Divine plan is suppressed. Perhaps this is to be expected from an author anxious to legitimize the younger son of Abraham (i.e., Isaac) at the elder's expense. In any case, to be born under the Sign of Ishmael is to be born under the Sign of Contradiction.



God bless the disenfranchised contrarians who insist upon Ishmaelite and Gnostic constructions of Biblical religion!