A memorable name in Scripture well known to all lovers of the Bible. The wife of Abraham. Various have been the interpretations given to her name, according to the root from whence various commentators on the Bible have supposed it to have been derived. The most general opinion hath been, that it is taken from Shar, prince; and if so Sharah or Sarah will be princess. It would be to give an abridgement of that part of the word of God which contains the history of Sarah to amplify observations in this place on her character.The reader will do well to turn to the relation given of her in the book of Genesis, and in summing up her character to recollect what honorable testimony the Holy Ghost hath given of Sarah in giving her a place among those illustrious persons - who all died, as they had lived, in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them. It is but a short inscription over Sarah’s portrait in those lively pictures of the faithful, but it is a very blessed one, Shejudged him faithful who had promised." (Heb. xi. 11 - 13.)
Though I think it unnecessary to swell the pages of this Concordance with the history of Sarah, because we have it already most blessedly set forth in the holy Scriptures, yet I cannot shut up this article without making a short observation on that beautiful allegory which the Holy Ghost hath given us in Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, fourth chapter, and twenty - second and following verses. Under the history of Sarah and Hagar, the Holy Ghost there teacheth the church that he hath represented the two covenants of the gospel andthe law. No man upon earth, untaught of God the Holy Ghost, would ever have had the most distant idea of those things being shadowed forth in Sarah and Hagar’s history, had not the Lord the Spirit so taught. But being there so beautifully and strikingly explained, it becomes a subject of sweet consolation and instruction, and gives to all true believers in Christ new occasion to bless God when discovering their relationship in Jesus, that they "as Isaac was, are the children of promise." It is indeed most blessed to discoverthat we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free."
the wife of Abraham, and his sister, as he himself informs us, by the same father, but not the same mother, Gen 20:12. See ABRAHAM.
Sa´rah (a princess, a noble lady), the wife of Abraham, and mother of Isaac. She was at first called Sarai, which Ewald explains to mean contentious, quarrelsome. As Sarah never appears but in connection with some circumstance in which her husband was principally concerned, all the facts of her history have already been given in the article Abraham, and her conduct to Hagar is considered in the article Hagar.
Or SARA, the wife of Abraham, the daughter of his father by another mother, Gen 20:12 . Most Jewish writers, however, and many interpreters, identify her with Iscah, the sister of Lot, and Abraham’s niece, Gen 11.29; the word "daughter" according to Hebrew usage, comprising any female descendant, and "sister," any female relation by blood. When God made a covenant with Abraham, he changed the name of Sarai or my princess, into that of Sarah, or princess; and promised Abraham a son by her, which was fulfilled in due time.\par The most prominent points of her history as recorded in the Bible are, her consenting to Abraham’s unbelieving dissimulation while near Pharaoh and Abimelech; her long-continued barrenness; her giving to Abraham her maid Hagar as a secondary wife; their mutual jealousy; and her bearing Isaac in her old age, "the child of promise," Gen 12:1-23:20. She appears to have been a woman of uncommon beauty, and a most exemplary and devoted wife. Her docility is eulogized in 1Pe 3:6, and her faith in Heb 11:11 . See also Isa 51:2 Gal 4:22-31 . Sarah lived to the age of one hundred and twenty-seven years. She died in the valley of Hebron, and Abraham came to Beer-sheba to mourn for her, after which he bought a field of Ephron the Hittite, wherein was a cave hewn in the rock, called Machpelah, where Sarah was buried, Gen 23:9 .\par
Sa’rah. (princess).
1. The wife, and half-sister, Gen 20:12, of Abraham, and mother of Isaac. Her name is first introduced in Gen 11:29, as Sarai. The change of her name from Sarai, my princess, (that is, Abraham’s), to Sarah, princess, (for all the race), was made at the same time that Abram’s name was changed to Abraham, -- on the establishment of the covenant of circumcision between him and God. Sarah’s history is, of course, that of Abraham. See Abraham. She died at Hebron at the age of 127 years, 28 years before her husband, and was buried by him, "in the cave of the field of Machpelah," Gen 23:19. (B.C. 1860). She is referred to, in the New Testament, as a type of conjugal obedience in 1Pe 3:6, and as one of the types of faith in Heb 11:11.
2. Sarah, the daughter of Asher. Num 26:46.
("princess".)
An example of faith, though she erred in abetting Abram’s pretence that she was his sister (her beauty was then great: Gen 12:13, etc., Gen 20:5; Gen 20:13); still more in suggesting the carnal policy of Abram’s taking Hagar to obtain children by her, when God delayed the promised seed by Sarah herself (Gen 16:1-3); also in harshness to Hagar, when the retributive consequences of her own false step overtook her through the very instrument of her sin (Gen 16:5-6; Jer 2:19; Pro 1:31); also laughing in unbelief at God’s promise that she should bear a son in her old age (Genesis 18), forgetting that nothing is "too hard for the Lord" (see Jer 32:17; Luk 1:37), then denying that she laughed, through fear; faith triumphed at last (Genesis 21).
"At the set time the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as He had spoken"; "God hath made me to laugh," said Sarah, "all that hear will laugh with me," namely, in joy as Abraham laughed (Gen 17:17), not in incredulity, as in Gen 18:12-15. Under God’s prompting, Sarah, seeing Hagar’s son "mocking" at Isaac the son of the promise during the feast for the latter when weaned (see the spiritual sense Gal 4:22-31), said to Abraham, "cast out this bondwoman," etc.
Heb 11:11, "through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and that when she was past age (the Alexandrinus and Sinaiticus manuscripts omit "was delivered of a child") because she judged Him faithful that promised"; though first doubting, as the weaker vessel, she ceased to doubt, faith triumphing over sense. "Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord," and so is a pattern of a meek and quiet spirit to all wives (1Pe 3:6; Gen 18:12). The truth of the sacred narrative appears in its faithfully recording her faults as well as her faith. Her motherly affection so won Isaac that none but Rebekah could "comfort him after his mother’s death" (Gen 24:6-7). She was 127 when she died at Hebron, 28 years before Abraham, and was buried in the cave of Machpelah, bought from Ephron the Hittite; her "shrine" is shown opposite Abraham’s, with Isaac’s and Rebekah’s on one side, Jacob’s and Leah’s on the other.
Sarah (sâ’rah), princess. 1. The wife and half-sister, Gen 20:12, of Abraham, and mother of Isaac. Her name is written Sarai in Gen 11:29. The change of her name from Sarai, my princess (i.e. Abraham’s), to Sarah, princess, was made when Abram’s name was changed to Abraham. She died at Hebron at the age of 127 years, 28 years before her husband, and was burled by him in the cave of Machpelah. She is referred to in the New Testament as a type of conjugal obedience in 1Pe 3:6, and as one of the types of faith in Heb 11:11.
(SARAI).
By: Emil G. Hirsch, Wilhelm Bacher, Jacob Zallel Lauterbach, Joseph Jacobs, Mary W. Montgomery
SARAH or SARAI.—1. ‘Sarai’ is the form used previous to Gen 17:15, and ‘Sarah’ afterwards, in harmony with the change of name there narrated (by P
2. Sarah, daughter of Raguel and wife of Tobias (Tob 3:7; Tob 3:17 and elsewhere).
George R. Berry.
(ÓÜññá)
(1) Sarah has a place in the Roll of Faith (Heb_11:11). By faith even she herself (êáὶ áὐôÞ) won the title to this great honour. The meaning of áὐôÞ, is doubtful: it may be expanded into ‘though she was the weaker vessel’ (vas infirmius, Bengel); or, ‘though she was barren’ (D adds the gloss óôåῖñá); or, ‘though she had been so incredulous.’ She received strength for conception (åἰò êáôáâïëὴí óðÝñìáôïò), believing, even when she was beyond the proper time of life (ðáñὰ êáéñὸí ἡëéêßáò), that God could by a miracle give her a child. Motherhood after long childlessness is a recurrent theme in Bible narratives: Rebekah, Rachel, the mother of Samson, of Samuel, of John Baptist had each a happiness like Sarah’s. (2) St. Peter (1Pe_3:6) praises the holy women of the olden time, who trusted in God and were in subjection to their husbands, ‘as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.’ Her reverential use of this term in reference to her husband occurs but once (Gen_18:12), and would in itself be an insufficient ground for making her a pattern of wifely obedience, especially as words of quite another import stand recorded against her (16:5). But the Apostle evidently felt that the dutiful word was weighted with the love and loyalty of a lifetime.
Literature.-A. Whyte, Bible Characters: Adam to Achan, 1896; R. F. Horton, Women of the OT, 1897.
James Strahan.
Wife of Abraham. Mother of Isaac. One of the Matriarchs of Judaism.
1Pe 3:6 (a) This is a type of the Church, the Bride of CHRIST, who should be and usually is in obedience to her Lord, the Bridegroom.
At the time of her marriage to Abraham in Mesopotamia, Sarah’s name was Sarai and Abraham’s was Abram. God gave them their new names (Abraham meaning ‘father of a multitude’, Sarah meaning ‘princess’) to confirm to them that they would be the parents of a multitude of people, the nation Israel (Gen 11:29; Gen 17:5-6; Gen 17:15-16; Isa 51:2). From Mesopotamia God directed Abraham and Sarah into Canaan, the land that he promised would be Israel’s eventual homeland (Gen 12:1; Gen 12:5-8).
Abraham accepted God’s promise by faith and, because of this, God accepted him as righteous (Gen 15:6). (For details of the New Testament teaching on faith in the lives of Abraham and Sarah see ABRAHAM.) However, Abraham’s faith failed on occasions. Twice he deceived people by saying Sarah was his sister. This was partly true, as Sarah was a daughter of his father by a different wife; but it was wrong to tell only part of the truth in order to deceive (Gen 12:18-20; Gen 20:11-12).
God had promised that Abraham and Sarah, in spite of their many years without children, would in due course produce a son through whom God’s promises would be fulfilled. The older they grew, the less likely it seemed that Sarah would bear a child, so Sarah suggested that Abraham obtain the desired son through their slave-girl, Hagar. A son was born, but God said it was not the child he had promised (Gen 16:1-4; Gen 16:15; Gen 17:18-19).
Sarah found it difficult to believe that a woman as old as she could bear a son, and therefore God sent special heavenly messengers to convince her. Sarah had to share Abraham’s faith (Gen 18:10-14). The next year, when Abraham was about a hundred years old and Sarah about ninety, Sarah gave birth to Isaac, the son whom God had promised (Gen 17:17; Gen 17:19; Gen 17:21; Gen 21:1-5). The faith of Abraham and Sarah had been tested constantly for twenty-five years (cf. Gen 12:4), and had shown itself to be genuine and enduring (Rom 4:17-21; Heb 11:11-12).
Earlier there had been friction between Sarah and Hagar (Gen 16:4-9). When it appeared again, Sarah said to Abraham that he should drive out Hagar and her son from the household (Gen 21:10). Although Sarah respected Abraham as head of the household, she also had a role in family decisions, and in this case God told Abraham to do as Sarah suggested (Gen 21:12; cf. 1Pe 3:6). Isaac alone was to be heir to the promises God gave concerning his chosen land and people. Sarah lived to see her son grow into a mature and responsible leader. He was about thirty-seven years old when Sarah died (Gen 23:1; Gen 23:19).