Who
Abraham’s wife, first called Sarai, barren until her old age. When she laughed at the promise of a son, the LORD answered, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” (Genesis 18:14), and she bore Isaac. “By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive” (Hebrews 11:11); Peter holds her up as a model to Christian wives (1 Peter 3:6). Paul reads her, the free woman, against Hagar the slave as the two covenants: her children are those of the promise, born of “the Jerusalem that is above”, which “is free, which is the mother of us all” (Galatians 4:22–31).
Key verses
- Genesis 11:29
Abram and Nahor married wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, who was also the father of Iscah.
- Genesis 18:14
Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes around, and Sarah will have a son.”
- Genesis 21:2
Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.
- Genesis 21:3
Abraham called his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.
- Galatians 4:26
But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
- Hebrews 11:11
By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised.
- 1 Peter 3:6
So Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose children you now are if you do well and are not put in fear by any terror.
Where the Bible names her
Family
- Husband
- Children
Discussed by
Comments on the verses that name her (8 of 68).
- Jerome on Mark 11:1–10 (3)Catena Aurea on Mark
Or Hosanna, that is, save “in the highest” as well as in the lowest, that is, that the just be built on the ruin of Angels, and also that both those on the earth and those under the earth should be saved. In a…
- Origen, De Principiis IV.1
, Sections 1-23 translated from the Latin of Rufinus: That the Scriptures are Divinely Inspired. 1. But as it is not sufficient, in the discussion of matters of such importance, to entrust the decision to the human…
- Tertullian, On the Pallium Chapter 2
The Law of Change, or Mutation, Universal. Draw we now our material from some other source, lest Punichood either blush or else grieve in the midst of Romans. To change her habit is, at all events, the stated…
- Augustine of Hippo, The City of God XV.2
Of the Children of the Flesh and the Children of the Promise. There was indeed on earth, so long as it was needed, a symbol and foreshadowing image of this city, which served the purpose of reminding men that such a…
- Origen, De Principiis IV.2
Chapter I.—On the Inspiration of Holy Scripture, and How the Same is to be Read and Understood, and What is the Reason of the Uncertainty in it; and of the Impossibility or Irrationality of Certain Things in it,…
- Hippolytus of Rome, The Refutation of All Heresies V.2
Chapter II.—Naasseni Ascribe Their System, Through Mariamne, to James the Lord’s Brother; Really Traceable to the Ancient Mysteries; Their Psychology as Given in the “Gospel According to Thomas;” Assyrian Theory of…
- Augustine of Hippo, The City of God XVII.3
Chapter 3.—Of the Three-Fold Meaning of the Prophecies, Which are to Be Referred Now to the Earthly, Now to the Heavenly Jerusalem, and Now Again to Both. Wherefore just as that divine oracle to Abraham, Isaac, and…
- Tertullian, The Five Books Against Marcion V.3
Chapter IV.—Another Instance of Marcion’s Tampering with St. Paul’s Text. The Fulness of Time, Announced by the Apostle, Foretold by the Prophets. Mosaic Rites Abrogated by the Creator Himself. Marcion’s Tricks About…