Sarah
Sarah | |
---|---|
שָׂרָה | |
Born | |
Died | |
Burial place | Cave of the Patriarchs |
Spouse | Abraham |
Children | Isaac |
Parent |
|
Relatives | Haran (brother) Nahor (brother) Nahor (grandfather) Abraham (half-brother) Lot (nephew) Lot's daughters (grandnieces) Moab (great-grandnephew/grandnephew) Ben-Ammi (great-grandnephew/grandnephew) Iscah (niece) Milcah (niece/sister-in-law) Bethuel (grandnephew/nephew) Rebecca (great-grandniece/grandniece/daughter-in-law) Laban (great-grandnephew/grandnephew) Esau (grandson) Jacob (grandson) Ishmael (half-nephew/step-son) |
Sarah
In the Hebrew Bible
Family
According to
By her union with Abraham, Sarah had one child, Isaac.[9] After her death, Abraham married Keturah, whose identity biblical scholars debate (that is, whether or not she was actually Hagar), and by her had at least six more children.
Narrative
In the biblical narrative, Sarah is the wife of Abraham. In two places in the narrative he says Sarah is his sister (Genesis 12:10 through 13:1, in the encounter with Pharaoh, and Genesis 20, in the encounter with Abimelech). Knowing Sarah to be a great beauty and fearing that the Pharaoh would kill Abraham to be with Sarah, Abraham asks Sarah to tell the Pharaoh that she is his sister (
She was originally called Sarai. In the narrative of the covenant of the pieces in Genesis 17, during which Yahweh promises Abram that he and Sarai will have a son, Abram is renamed as Abraham and Sarai is renamed as Sarah. According to most modern scholars, both Sarah and Sarai come from the same root SRR, with both meaning "important woman".[10] A minority of scholars derive Sarai from the root SRY, meaning "contend with" or "withstand", similar to the name Israel.[10]
Departure from Ur
Terah, with Abram (as he was then called), Sarai and Lot, departed for
Pharaoh
There was a severe famine in the land of Canaan, so Abram and Lot and their households travelled south to Egypt. On the journey to Egypt, Abram instructed Sarai to identify herself only as his sister, fearing that the Egyptians would kill him in order to take his wife, saying,
I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'this is his wife.' Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.[14]
When brought before Pharaoh, Sarai said that Abram was her brother, and the king thereupon took her into his palace and bestowed upon Abram many presents and marks of distinction. However, God afflicted Pharaoh's household with great plagues.[15] Pharaoh then realized that Sarai was Abram's wife and demanded that they leave Egypt immediately.[16]
Hagar and Ishmael
After having lived in Canaan for ten years and still childless, Sarai suggested that Abram have a child with her Egyptian handmaiden Hagar, to which he agreed. This resulted in tension between Sarai and Hagar, and Sarai complained to her husband that the handmaid no longer respected her.[17] At one point, Hagar fled from her mistress but returned after angels consoled her. She gave birth to Abram's son Ishmael when Abram was eighty-six years old.[18]
Isaac
In Genesis 17 when Abram was ninety-nine years old, God declared his new name: "Abraham" – "a father of many nations", and gave him the covenant of circumcision. God gave Sarai the new name "Sarah", and blessed her.[19] Abraham was given assurance that Sarah would have a son. Not long afterwards, Abraham and Sarah were visited by three men. One of the visitors told Abraham that upon his return next year, Sarah would have a son. While at the tent entrance, Sarah overheard what was said, and she laughed to herself about the prospect of having a child at their ages. The visitor inquired of Abraham why Sarah laughed at the idea of bearing a child, for her age was as nothing to God. Sarah soon became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham, at the very time which had been spoken. The patriarch, then a hundred years old, named the child "Isaac" (Hebrew yitschaq, "laughter") and circumcised him when he was eight days old.[20] For Sarah, the thought of giving birth and nursing a child, at such an old age, also brought her much laughter, as she declared, "God had made me to laugh, [so that] all that hear will laugh with me."[21] Abraham held a great feast on the day when Isaac was to be weaned. It was during this banquet that Sarah happened upon the then teenaged Ishmael mocking Isaac[22] and was so disturbed that she requested that both he and Hagar be banished.[23] Abraham was initially distressed by this but relented when told by God to do as his wife had asked.[24]
Abimelech
After being visited by the three men, Abraham and Sarah settled between
Early the next morning, Abimelech informed his servants of his dream and approached Abraham inquiring as to why he had brought such great guilt upon his kingdom. Abraham replied that he thought there was no fear of God in that place, and that they might kill him for his wife. Then Abraham defended what he had said as not being a lie at all: "And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife."[26] Abimelech returned Sarah to Abraham, and gave him gifts of sheep, oxen, and servants; and invited him to settle wherever he pleased in Abimelech's lands. Further, Abimelech gave Abraham a thousand pieces of silver to serve as Sarah's vindication before all. Abraham then prayed for Abimelech and his household, since God had stricken the women with infertility because of the taking of Sarah.[27]
Death
Sarah dies at the age of 127, and Abraham buys a piece of land with a cave near
Later Hebrew Bible references
Sarah is mentioned alongside Abraham in Isaiah 51:2:
- Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you.
New Testament references
The First Epistle of Peter praises Sarah for obeying her husband.[30] She is praised for her faith in the Hebrews "hall of faith" passage alongside a number of other Old Testament figures.[31] Other New Testament references to Sarah are in Romans[32] and Galatians.[33] In Galatians 4, she and Hagar are used as an allegory of the old and new covenants:
"For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother...Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise...Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman."[34]
Historicity
In the early and middle 20th century, leading archaeologists such as William Foxwell Albright and biblical scholars such as Albrecht Alt believed that the patriarchs and matriarchs were either real individuals or believable composites of people who lived in the "patriarchal age", the 2nd millennium BCE. But, in the 1970s, new arguments concerning Israel's past and the biblical texts challenged these views; these arguments can be found in Thomas L. Thompson's The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives (1974), and John Van Seters' Abraham in History and Tradition (1975). Thompson, a literary scholar, based his argument on archaeology and ancient texts. His thesis centered on the lack of compelling evidence that the patriarchs lived in the 2nd millennium BCE, and noted how certain biblical texts reflected first-millennium conditions and concerns. Van Seters examined the patriarchal stories and argued that their names, social milieu, and messages strongly suggested that they were Iron Age creations.[35]: 18–19 By the beginning of the 21st century, archaeologists had given up hope of recovering any context that would make the patriarchs and matriarchs credible historical figures.[36][37]: 98 and fn.2
Religious views
In Judaism
Sarah first appears in the
En route to Canaan, the group stopped in Harran, in present-day Turkey, settling there for some twenty years, until Yahweh urged them to move on and so, they left Terah behind, to live out his days, and traveled through Shechem and Bethel, both cities in the present-day West Bank, and, when a famine strikes the region, to Mizraim, present-day Egypt. While in Mizraim, Sarah's beauty attracts the attention of Pharaoh and Abraham, fearing the Egyptians would kill him if they knew Sarah was married to him, introduces himself as her brother and so, Pharaoh bestows upon Abraham great wealth, in the form of livestock and slaves, including Hagar, so that he may take Sarah as his concubine, to live in his palace with him.[citation needed] For Pharaoh's unintentional transgression against Abraham, he and members of his household, save for Sarah, are stricken with plague. Pharaoh then realizes that Abraham is Sarah's husband, not only her brother. Despite Abraham's willful deceit of Pharaoh, Pharaoh does not punish Abraham nor does he require the return of the wealth Abram was given in exchange for Sarah. However, he orders them to leave Mizraim. After leaving Mizraim, Lot splits from their group amicably. He eventually settles in Sodom, over disputes related to the livestock.
They returned to
Sometime after the birth of Ishmael but before the birth of Isaac, Sarah and Abraham travel to Gerar, as described in Genesis 20, where events took place which mirrored those of Mizraim, in which a king, this time Abimelech, took an interest in Sarah for her beauty and, as he had done in Mizraim, Abraham presented himself as her brother instead of her husband and so, believing her unmarried Abimelech took her into her house as Pharaoh had though, this time, Yahweh intervened before he touched Sarah, through dreams and plague. Abimelech confronted Abraham, angry that his lie had caused him to provoke the wrath of a god, but, also like Pharaoh, he bestows great wealth upon Abraham. The two men part amicably, with Abraham saying he will pray for the king, who is childless and without an heir.
It is said that Sarah died at the age of one hundred and twenty seven years, caused in part by the events of the
In rabbinic literature
The Talmud identifies Sarai with Iscah, daughter of Abraham's deceased brother Haran,[40] so that in this Sarah turns out to be the niece of Abraham and the sister of Lot and Milcah.[41] While in Genesis 20:12 Abraham claims that Sarah "is indeed my sister, my father's daughter" rather than his niece, Rashi asserts that the term "daughter" can also be used regarding a granddaughter, and thus "sister" can be used regarding a niece.[42]
The fifth-century rabbinic midrash
When brought before Pharaoh, Sarah said that Abram was her brother, and the king thereupon bestowed upon the latter many presents and marks of distinction.[44] As a token of his love for Sarai the king deeded his entire property to her, and gave her the land of Goshen as her hereditary possession: for this reason the Israelites subsequently lived in that land.[45] Sarai prayed to God to deliver her from the king, and He thereupon sent an angel, who struck Pharaoh whenever he attempted to touch her. Pharaoh was so astonished at these blows that he spoke kindly to Sarai, who confessed that she was Abraham's wife. The king then ceased to annoy her.[44] According to another version, Pharaoh persisted in annoying her after she had told him that she was a married woman; thereupon the angel struck him so violently that he became ill, and was thereby prevented from continuing to trouble her.[46] According to one tradition it was when Pharaoh saw these miracles wrought in Sarai's behalf that he gave her his daughter Hagar as slave, saying: "It is better that my daughter should be a slave in the house of such a woman than mistress in another house." Abimelech acted likewise.[47] In Genesis 17:15, God changes her name to Sarah (princess) ("a woman of high rank") as part of the covenant with El Shaddai after Hagar bears Abram his first born son Ishmael.
Sarai treated Hagar well, and induced women who came to visit her to visit Hagar also. Hagar, when pregnant by Abraham, began to act superciliously toward Sarai, provoking the latter to treat her harshly, to impose heavy work upon her, and even to strike her.[48] Some believe Sarai was originally destined to reach the age of 175 years, but forty-eight years of this span of life were taken away from her because she complained of Abraham, blaming him as though he was the cause that Hagar no longer respected her.[49][50] Sarah was sterile; but a miracle was granted to her[51] after her name was changed from "Sarai" to "Sarah".[49] According to one myth, when her fertility had been restored and she had given birth to Isaac, the people would not believe in the miracle, saying that the patriarch and his wife had adopted a foundling and pretended that it was their own son. Abraham thereupon invited all the notabilities to a banquet on the day when Isaac was to be weaned. Sarah invited the women, also, who brought their infants with them; and on this occasion she gave milk from her breasts to all the strange children, thus convincing the guests of the miracle.[52]
Legends connect Sarah's death with the attempted sacrifice of Isaac,[53] however, there are two versions of the story. According to one, Samael came to her and said: "Your old husband seized the boy and sacrificed him. The boy wailed and wept; but he could not escape from his father." Sarah began to cry bitterly, and ultimately died of her grief.[54] According to the other legend, Satan came to Sarah disguised as an old man, and told her that Isaac had been sacrificed. Believing it to be true, she cried bitterly, but soon comforted herself with the thought that the sacrifice had been offered at the command of God. She started from Beer-sheba to Hebron, asking everyone she met if he knew in which direction Abraham had gone. Then Satan came again in human shape and told her that it was not true that Isaac had been sacrificed, but that he was living and would soon return with his father. Sarah, on hearing this, died of joy at Hebron. Abraham and Isaac returned to their home at Beer-sheba, and, not finding Sarah there, went to Hebron, where they discovered her dead.[55] According to the Genesis Rabbah, during Sarah's lifetime her house was always hospitably open, the dough was miraculously increased, a light burned from Friday evening to Saturday evening, and a pillar of cloud rested upon the entrance to her tent.[56]
In Islam
The Islamic portrayal of Sarah, who is unnamed in the Quran, mimics that of her portrayal in Judaism and Christianity, in that she is a good woman, kin and wife to Abraham, who, after years of barrenness, has a son, the prophet Isaac (Isḥāq). However, notable differences exist in the portrayal of her relationships with Abraham, Hagar, and Ishmael. She is not portrayed as Abraham's sister but his first cousin, said to be the daughter of Terah's brother, Haran, and Hagar is not portrayed as Abraham's mistress but a second wife, eliminating the hostility that Sarah feels for Hagar during her pregnancy and toward Ishmael.[57][58][59]
The Quran likewise repeats the biblical story that Sarah laughed when she received a divine message confirming her pregnancy, although in the Quran this message is heralded by angels and not by God himself:[60]
11:69 And surely Our messenger-angels came to Abraham with good news ˹of a son˺. They greeted ˹him with˺, “Peace!” And he replied, “Peace ˹be upon you˺!” Then it was not long before he brought ˹them˺ a ˹fat,˺ roasted calf.
11:70 And when he saw that their hands did not reach for the food, he became suspicious and fearful of them. They reassured ˹him˺, “Do not be afraid! We are ˹angels˺ sent ˹only˺ against the people of Lot.”
11:71 And his wife was standing by, so she laughed, then We gave her good news of ˹the birth of˺ Isaac, and, after him, Jacob.
11:72 She wondered, “Oh, my! How can I have a child in this old age, and my husband here is an old man? This is truly an astonishing thing!”
Tomb of Sarah
Sarah is believed to be buried in the Cave of the Patriarchs (known by Muslims as the Sanctuary of Abraham). The compound, located in the ancient city of Hebron, is the second holiest site for Jews (after the Temple Mount in Jerusalem), and is also venerated by Christians and Muslims, both of whom have traditions which maintain that the site is the burial place of three biblical couples; Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah.[61]
Relationship to Abraham
There are three stories in Genesis where a patriarch identifies his wife as his sister; scholars debate the relationship among these, with some saying that the account of the encounter of Abraham and Sarah with Pharaoh in Genesis 12-13 is the oldest, while the stories of Abraham and Sarah encounter King Abimelech in Genesis 20, and of Isaac and Rebecca's encounter with a different King Abimelech in Genesis 26, are interpretations of that one, generated to explain it or deal with other matters of concern. It is not clear which of the stories is actually older, or what the intent of the editors of the Bible may have been.[62]
According to
In popular culture
Sarah has been featured in several novels, and she is the central character in
Sarah is also a subject discussed in nonfiction books. In Twelve Extraordinary Women by Pastor
See also
Notes
- Arabic: سَارَة Sārah
- ^ שָׂרַי Sāray
References
- ^ Genesis 20:12
- ^ Zeno. "Lexikoneintrag zu »Sara (5)«. Vollständiges Heiligen-Lexikon, Band 5. Augsburg 1882, ..." www.zeno.org (in German). Retrieved 2021-10-24.
- ^ "Sara". DEON.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2022-01-01.
- ^ "Lutheran - Religious calendar 2021 - Calendar.sk". calendar.zoznam.sk. Retrieved 2021-10-24.
- ^ "Праведная Са́рра, жена ветхозаветного патриарха Авраа́ма". azbyka.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-12-16.
- ^ "Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 20:12". New King James Version. Bible Gateway. Retrieved 2019-08-28.
- ^ Yitzhaki, Solomon. RASH'I Commentary on the Torah.
- ^ Schwartz, Howard, (1998). Reimagining the Bible: The Storytelling of the Rabbis, Oxford University Press, New York, p. 36.
- ^ "Ishmael: Abraham's Other Son". Chabad. Retrieved 2019-08-28.
- ^ a b שרה, רבקה, רחל ולאה
- ^ Genesis 11:27–11:32
- ^ Genesis 12:1–3
- ^ Genesis 12:4
- ^ Genesis 12:11–13
- ^ Genesis 12:14–17
- ^ Genesis 12:18–20
- ^ Genesis 16:1–6
- ^ Genesis 16:7–16
- ^ Genesis 17:1–27
- ^ Genesis 21:4
- ^ Genesis 21:6–7
- ^ Genesis 21:9
- ^ Genesis 21:10
- ^ Genesis 21:12
- ^ Genesis 20:1–7
- ^ Genesis 20:12
- ^ Genesis 20:8–18
- JSTOR 25610180.
- ISBN 0-13614934-0.
- ^ 1 Peter 3:6, cited in Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- ^ Hebrews 11:11
- ^ Romans 4:19, 9:9 9, cited in Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- ^ Galatians 4:22–23
- ^ Galatians 4:22-26, 28, 31 NIV
- ISBN 978-0-8028-6260-0.
- JSTOR 545164.
- ISBN 978-0-8028-2126-3.
- ^ "Genesis 20:12". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2020-06-14.
See Rashi commentary: "If, however, you ask, "But was she not his brother's daughter? (see chapter 11:29, and so she was granddaughter of Terah, Abraham's father), then I reply, one's children's children are considered as one's own children."
- ^ "Abraham - The Genesis narrative in the light of recent scholarship". Encyclopedia Britannica. 25 December 2023.
- ^ Genesis 11:29
- ^ Sanhedrin 69b
- ^ "Genesis 20:12". www.sefaria.org.
- S2CID 234296316.
- ^ a b Sefer haYashar (Book of Jasher), section "Lek Leka".
- ^ Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer 36
- ^ Genesis Rabbah 41:2
- ^ Genesis Rabbah 45:2
- ^ Genesis Rabbah 45:9.
- ^ a b Rosh Hashanah 16b
- ^ Genesis Rabbah 45:7.
- ^ Genesis Rabbah 47:3
- ^ Bava Metzia 87a; compare Genesis Rabbah 53:13
- ^ Genesis Rabbah 58:5
- ^ Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer 32
- ^ Sefer haYashar, section "Vayera".
- ^ Genesis Rabbah 60:15
- ISBN 97 8-0-6 92-21411-4. Archived from the originalon 2019-06-22. Retrieved 2018-10-19.
- ISBN 978-0042970509.
- ^ Mufti, Imam. "The Story of Abraham (part 5 of 7): The Gifting of Hagar and Her Plight". www.islamreligion.com. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
- S2CID 191038420. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
- ^ Easton's Bible Dictionary "Machpelah"
- JSTOR 1519495.
- ^ Emanuel Feldman. Changing patterns in Biblical criticism. Tradition 1965; 7(4) and 1966; 8(5).
- ISBN 978-0-8040-0844-0.
- ISBN 1-4002-8028-1
- ^ Higgs, Liz, Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible: Flawed Women Loved by a Flawless God. 978-1400072125