Sarah

Sarah ( Hebrew: שָׂרָה, Standard Sara Tiberian Śārāh ; Arabic: سارة, Saara ; "a woman of high rank") is the wife of Abraham as described in the Quran and the Hebrew Bible. Sarah's story is told in the Book of Genesis.

The Hebrew word sarah indicates a woman of high rank and is sometimes translated as "princess" or goddess, or "high holy one".

Hebrew Bible

Journeys

Sarah was originally called Sarai (שָׂרַי / שָׂרָי , Standard Hebrew Saray) and lived with her husband, then called Abram ( אברם) in Haran. However, like several other great biblical women, Sarai could not have children. God promised Abram that he would become a father of multitudes, instructing him leave Haran and journey to an unknown land (later identified as Canaan). Sarai accompanied him on this journey, along with their nephew Lot and a number of slaves. In Canaan, they stayed long enough to establish two altars at sites which later became Israelite religious centers, one at Shechem, the other at Bethel. However, a famine threatened, and Abram decided to take refuge in Egypt.

Arriving in Egypt, Abram feared that Sarai's beauty would put his life in danger if their true relationship became known. He proposed that she pass as his sister. "I will be treated well for your sake. and my life will be spared because of you," he told her. Risking her own life as well as her chastity, Sarai agreed to this plan and was taken into Pharaoh's harem. The king rewarded Abram richly on her account. However, God struck Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues, after which the king suspected the truth. He censured Abram and ordered him to take his wife and depart, allowing him to leave with the considerable wealth he had presented Abram in livestock, slaves, and other possessions. (According to a later rabbinical tradition, Pharaoh was nevertheless impressed with Abram's righteousness, and sent his own daughter, Hagar, to be Sarai's slave.)

Settling in Canaan

The couple, now very wealthy, journeyed back to Bethel. There, Abram ordered Lot — who also possessed a great many flocks — to separate from the rest of the clan due to quarrels between their hersdmen. Lot made his fateful decision to take his flocks toward the well-watered plain of the Jordan arrive and from there south to Sodom, while Sarah and Abram remained in hill country. Abram led his flocks to area of Mamre, near Hebron, where he established yet another altar to his God.

Meanwhile, although God promised Abram that he would yet be a father of nations, after 10 years in Canaan Sarai remained childless. To help her husband fulfill his destiny, she offered her Egyptian slave, Hagar, to him for sexual intercourse, saying "perhaps I can build a family through her." (Gen. 16:2) Hagar quickly became pregnant and began to despise and taunt her mistress. Sarai bitterly complained to her husband, but Abram responded that she should do with her slave as she deemed best. Sarai's harsh treatment of Hagar forced the handmaid to flee to the desert. There, the angel of God met her and commanded her to return to Sarah and submit to her. The angel also announced that Hagar's son would be "a wild donkey of a man," her desendants would be "too numerous to count." (Gen. 15:10) After Hagar returned, she bore a son whom Abram named Ishmael.

Afterwards God changed their names to Abraham and Sarah to help them fulfill their new destiny as progenitors of the future nation of Israel. In Hebrew, the name Avram means "exalted father" or, alternately, "father of Aram," the country where Abraham was born. Sarai means "my woman of high rank", referring to her relationship with her husband. Now their names would be Avraham, meaning "father of many," and Sarah, meaning "woman of high rank". Then God sent three angels in the guise of men to inform the couple of the impending birth of Isaac. Abraham laughed with joy at the news, as he would be 100 years old at the time of the birth, but Sarah laughed with doubt, as she would be 90 years old and the ways of women had long since ceased for her.

Abraham next moved to Gerar, where Sarah was again taken by the ruler to become his wife after she claimed Abraham was her brother. Abimelech, however, was warned by God in a dream not to touch Sarah. When Abimelech reproved Abraham for the deception, Abraham justified himself by explaining that Sarah was the daughter of his father but not of his mother (Gen. 20:1-12).

Immediately after this incident, Sarah bore a son, Isaac. God instructed Abraham to name him after the laughter which Sarah had made when her son's birth was prophesied by the angel.

According to Rashi, who lived thousands of years later, people questioned whether the 100-year old Abraham really was the father of the child, as he and Sarah had lived together for decades without conceiving. Instead, people gossiped that Abimelech was the true father. For this reason, according to Rashi, God made Isaac's features exactly the same as Abraham's, so no one could claim a different paternity.

As Isaac grew up, his older half-brother Ishmael began to mock him, and Sarah demanded that Abraham send away both Hagar and Ishmael to protect Isaac. Some believe that Sarah's shunning, and the hard life of exile that followed, angered Ishmael and that this is one of the causes of strife between Islam and Christianity, as Ishmael became a prophet. Years later, at the death of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael came together again to bury their father in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron (Gen. 25:9).

Sarah died in Kiryat Arba (קרית ארבע), or Hebron, at the age of 127 years. Her death prompted Abraham to purchase a family burial plot, and he approached Ephron the Hittite to sell him the Cave of Machpelah (Cave of the Patriarchs). Ephron demanded an exhorbitant price of 400 pieces of silver, which Abraham paid in full. The Cave of Machpelah would eventually be the burial site for all three Jewish patriarchs and three of the four matriarchs—Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah. Rachel was buried on the road to Bethlehem.

No further reference to Sarah is found in the Hebrew canon, except in Isa. Ii. 2, where the prophet appeals to his hearers to "look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you".

In Rabbinic literature

In Rabbinic literature, Sarah was the niece of Abraham, being the daughter of his brother Haran. She was called also "Iscah" (Gen. xi. 29), because her beauty attracted general attention and admiration (Meg. 14a). She was so beautiful that all other persons seemed apes in comparison (Talmud, Bava Batra 58a). Even the hardships of her journey with Abraham did not affect her beauty (Midrash Gen. Rabbah xi. 4). According to another explanation, she was called Iscah because she had prophetic vision (Meg. l.c.). She was superior to Abraham in the gift of prophecy (Midrash Exodus Rabbah i. 1.). She was the "crown" of her husband; and he obeyed her words because he recognized this superiority on her part (Gen. R. xlvii. 1). She was the only woman whom God deemed worthy to be addressed by Him directly, all the other prophetesses receiving their revelations through angels (ib. xlv. 14). On their journeys Abraham converted the men, and Sarah the women (ib. xxxix. 21). She was called originally "Sarai", i.e., "my woman of high rank", because she was the princess of her house and of her tribe; later she was called "Sarah" = "woman of high rank" because she was recognized generally as such (Talmud Berachot 13a; Genesis Rabbah xlvii. 1).

Repetitions in the narrative

The story of Sarah's life, brief and incomplete as it is, presents nevertheless curious repetitions, e.g. the incident with Pharaoh and a similar incident with Abimelech. Marriages with half-sisters were, in primitive matriarchy, regarded as anything but incestuous. From the point of view of the history of culture these episodes are very instructive, but some consider it improbable that Abraham would have run the risk twice. Moreover, a similar incident is reported with regard to Isaac and Rebecca. This recurrence causes some to believe that none of the accounts is to be accepted as historical; they maintain that all three are variations of a theme common to the popular oral histories of the Patriarchs. That women were married in the way here supposed is not to be doubted. The purpose of the story is to extol the heroines as most beautiful and show that the Patriarchs were under the special protection of the Deity. The promise of Isaac and the explanation of the name are given in duplicate. First, Abraham is the recipient of the promise, and he laughs (ib. xvii. 15-21). In the second narrative. Abraham again is given the promise, but Sarah laughs. Finally, the name receives a third justification in Sarah's exclamation at his birth.

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