Dr. Thomas R. Blanton IV is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at John Carroll University and Research Fellow at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, University of Erfurt (Germany). He holds a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is the author of A Spiritual Economy: Gift Exchange in the Letters of Paul of Tarsus (Yale, 2017) and Constructing a New Covenant: Discursive Strategies in the Damascus Document and Second Corinthians (Mohr Siebeck, 2007); and co-editor of The History of Religions School Today: Essays on the New Testament and Related Ancient Mediterranean Texts (Mohr Siebeck, 2014), Paul and Economics: A Handbook (Fortress, 2017), Taxation, Economy, and Revolt in Ancient Rome, Galilee, and Egypt (Routledge, 2022), and Imitating Abraham: Ritual and Exemplarity in Jewish and Christian Contexts (Brill, 2025).
Last Updated
November 12, 2025
Books by the Author
Amazon paid links
Articles by the Author
In the 2nd century C.E., when Christianity emerged as a religion, theologians such as Justin and Chrysostom interpreted Paul’s letters to mean that Christians with faith in Jesus are Abraham’s spiritual descendants through Sarah. Jews, in contrast, are only his flesh descendants, banished like Hagar. Genesis Rabbah responds that after Sarah’s death, Abraham remarried Hagar—now called Keturah, “adorned” (kitra) with commandments and good deeds—and had many more children with her than he did with Sarah.
In the 2nd century C.E., when Christianity emerged as a religion, theologians such as Justin and Chrysostom interpreted Paul’s letters to mean that Christians with faith in Jesus are Abraham’s spiritual descendants through Sarah. Jews, in contrast, are only his flesh descendants, banished like Hagar. Genesis Rabbah responds that after Sarah’s death, Abraham remarried Hagar—now called Keturah, “adorned” (kitra) with commandments and good deeds—and had many more children with her than he did with Sarah.
