Sarah/Sarai
Genesis 11:29-13:1; 16:1-18:15; 20:2-21:12; 23:1-2, 19; 24:36; 25:10, 12; 49:31; Isaiah 51:2; Romans 4:19, 9:9; Hebrews 11:11; 1 Peter 3:6
Genesis 11:29-30 Abram and Nahor took wives; the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai…Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.
Genesis 18:13-14 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.”
Hebrews 11:11 By faith, with Sarah’s involvement, he received power of procreation, even though he was too old, because he considered him faithful who had promised.
1 Peter 3:6 Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him lord. You have become her daughters as long as you do what is good and never let fears alarm you.
“Abraham and Isaac Return to Sarah” from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of Vanderbilt Divinity Library”
Sarah was the wife of Abraham, the mother of Isaac, and the matriarch to all of Israel. That it’s Sarah’s children with Abraham who will become a great nation comes as a surprise; the biblical writers introduce Sarah as barren (Genesis 11:29-30). Through the twists and turns in the story, Sarah is so integral to God’s plans that God repeatedly intervenes on her behalf.
Fertility is not the only obstacle that stands in the way of Sarah having children. Sarah is twice taken by a foreign ruler because Abraham, worried her beauty might lead to his death, says she’s his sister. Both times foreign rulers bring Sarah into their households, God intervenes to get her out (Genesis 12:10-17 & Genesis 20).
Another obstacle is Sarah’s decision to take matters into her own hands. She gives her slave Hagar as a wife to Abraham. Sarah does so to “obtain children by her” (Genesis 16:2). After being impregnated, Hagar looks down on Sarah, and Sarah abuses Hagar. Hagar then flees into the wilderness with her unborn child. God intervenes and Hagar returns to Abraham’s household. Sarah’s abuse “serves as a cautionary tale bearing witness to the temptation to exercise whatever privilege we may have over someone else, rather than stand with them in shared peril” (Womanist Midrash by Wilda C. Gafney, p. 38).
Abraham assumes God’s promise will be fulfilled through Hagar’s child Ishmael and is so shocked to hear Sarah will have a child he falls on his face laughing (Genesis 17:15-17). Sarah laughs, too, when she hears the news (Genesis 18:12). But despite her old age, “the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised” and she bears a son named Isaac (Genesis 21:1).
When Sarah sees Ishmael playing with Isaac, she demands Hagar and Ishmael be cast out. Abraham complies, and Hagar and her boy almost die in the wilderness, until they are saved by God. It’s Sarah’s actions that imperil Hagar and, ironically, Sarah’s actions that lead to Hagar’s freedom.
Sarah’s death comes shortly after Hagar is sent away and the near sacrifice of Isaac. She dies at the age of 127 and is buried in the land where her descendants will become the promised great nation (Genesis 12:1-3).
The name Sarai/Sarah appears in the Bible more times than any other woman.
Sarah is mentioned four times in the New Testament (Rom 4:19, Heb 11:11, 1Pet 3:6, Gal 4:21-31).
Sarah’s burial site becomes the burial site for all the patriarchs. The Bible rarely mentions women’s deaths, and details of women’s burials are even more rare.
Readers have often wondered where Sarah was during the sacrifice of Isaac. A modern midrash imagines Sarah bringing the ram up to Mount Moriah and stopping Abraham with her “angelic voice.” In this reading, Sarah is God’s emissary. After saving her son and the future of her people, she lays down for a “long, long sleep” (“Where was Sarah during the Akedah?” by Rabbi Paul Kipnes).