The Present and Future of Trans Hermeneutics: Viewing Sarah Cispiciously: Cisnormalisation, and the Problem of Cisnormativity

This paper presents a reading of Sarah (Genesis 11:29-23:19) as a proto-trans(gender) figure. The author addresses the problem of cisnormativity and its impact on biblical interpretation. In particular, throughout this paper Sarah is presented as a character who has been cisnormalised within the literary tradition of the Biblical text in order to make her coherent to cisnormative gender expectations. Reading against this assumption through the deployment of a hermeneutics of cispicion enables identification of Sarah beyond these parameters