Abstract This article explores the way assumptions about gender prevalent in twenty-first century readers impact our understanding of Sarai. It interrogates the way a mere glimpse allows us to instantaneously assign a person gender, something trans theorist Julia Serano calls gendering. Through this article, we see how the third-party accounts of Sarai in Genesis 11:19–12:20 parallel the experience of that introductory glance today. By undertaking a close reading, different themes emerge that work to both confirm and challenge her fit within dominant gender norms. Indeed, Sarai cannot easily be subsumed into cisnormative gender expectations that privilege consistent coherence between the sex assigned at birth and gender identity and expression. Genesis 20:1–20 is then placed in discussion with the earlier portion of Sarai’s story. It provides the opportunity to revisit how observers within the text see and understand her. In turn new details emerge that seek to confirm Sarai’s fit within cisnormativity; but in doing so, they end up disrupting our perception that Sarai is a cisnormative woman. Ultimately, this reading establishes that Sarai does not neatly fit our preconceptions, which opens up the potential to consider her a transgender or a gender-diverse figure.

中文翻译：

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性别撒莱：在创世纪11：29–12：20和20：1–18中阅读超越常识的知识

摘要本文探讨了二十一世纪读者中普遍存在的性别假设影响我们对撒莱的理解的方式。它审视了仅凭一眼就能让我们立即分配一个人的性别的方式，这是跨理论家朱莉娅·塞拉诺（Julia Serano）所说的性别。通过本文，我们可以看到创世记11：19–12：20中Sarai的第三方描述如何与今天的介绍性体验相提并论。通过仔细阅读，出现了不同的主题，这些主题既可以确认又可以挑战她是否符合主流性别规范。确实，不能轻易将Sarai归入具有规范意义的性别期望中，即期望在出生时分配的性别与性别认同和表达之间保持一致的一致性。然后将创世记20：1-20与Sarai故事的较早部分进行讨论。它提供了重新审视文本中的观察者如何看待和理解她的机会。反过来又出现了新的细节，试图确认Sarai是否符合同位论。但是这样做最终破坏了我们对Sarai是一个具有规范性的女人的看法。最终，这读物证明了Sarai并不完全符合我们的先入之见，这开辟了考虑她成为跨性别者或性别差异人物的潜力。