Keturah

Relationship of Keturah to Abraham

Keturah is referred to in Genesis as "another wife" of Abraham (Hebrew: אִשָּׁה Translit.: 'išāh Translated: woman, wife). In First Chronicles, she is called Abraham's "concubine" (Hebrew: פִּילֶגֶשׁ Translit.: pilegeš Translated: concubine). Eric Lyon theorizes that "it is possible that Keturah was Abraham’s 'concubine' in the beginning, and then became his 'wife' at a later time."

Keturah and Hagar

There is disagreement amongst Jewish scholars as to whether Keturah was, or was not, the same person as Hagar—the servant of Abraham's wife Sarah, and Abraham's concubine—who (together with her son Ishmael) was sent away by Abraham at the insistence of Sarah.

The discussion of Genesis 25:1–6 in the Genesis Rabbah includes statements by Rabbi Yehuda ha-Nasi arguing that Hagar returned to Abraham and was renamed Keturah. Her new name (Keturah means incense in Hebrew) is said to refer to the pleasant aroma of incense—symbolic of her having turned from misdeeds committed during her time away from Abraham. Since Keturah is referred to in First Chronicles as Abraham's concubine (in the singular), some scholars concluded that this was why Keturah was identified with Hagar in the Midrash and the Palestinian Targumim. An alternative interpretation of the name Keturah (based on an Aramaic root meaning "to tie" or "to adorn") is also cited in the Genesis Rabbah to suggest that Hagar did not have sexual relations with anyone else from the time she left Abraham until her return. The theory that Keturah was Hagar was also supported by the 11th-century scholar Rashi.

Biblical scholar Richard Elliott Friedman dismisses the identification of Keturah with Hagar as "an old rabbinic idea" for which "there is no basis ... in the text", and also notes that the idea was rejected by traditional commentators such as Ibn Ezra, Ramban, and Rashbam. 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.

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, Enoch, Abida, and Eldaah). Keturah's sons were said to have represented the Arab tribes who lived south and east of Palestine.

According to the African writer Olaudah Equiano, the 18th-century English theologian John Gill believed the African people were descended from Abraham via Keturah.

According to the Bahá'í author John Able, Bahá'ís consider their founder, Bahá'u'lláh, to have been "descended doubly, from both Abraham and Sarah, and separately from Abraham and Keturah."