35 Facts About Sarah

1.

Sarah would have been the aunt of Lot, Milcah, Iscah, and Bethuel, by both blood and marriage.

2.

In two places in the narrative he says Sarah is his sister.

3.

Sarah gave birth to Abram's son Ishmael when Abram was eighty-six years old.

4.

God gave Sarai the new name "Sarah", and blessed her.

5.

Abraham was given assurance that Sarah would have a son.

6.

Not long afterwards, Abraham and Sarah were visited by three men.

7.

One of the visitors told Abraham that upon his return next year, Sarah would have a son.

8.

The visitor inquired of Abraham why Sarah laughed at the idea of bearing a child, for her age was as nothing to God.

9.

Sarah soon became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham, at the very time which had been spoken.

10.

Sarah dies at the age of 127, and Abraham buys a piece of land with a cave near Hebron from Ephron the Hittite in which to bury her, which is the first land owned by the Israelites in Canaan according to the biblical narrative.

11.

The First Epistle of Peter praises Sarah for obeying her husband.

12.

Sarah is praised for her faith in the Hebrews "hall of faith" passage alongside a number of other Old Testament figures.

13.

Sarah's 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.

14.

Sarah's 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.

15.

Sarah first appears in the Book of Genesis, while the Midrash and Aggadah provide some additional commentary on her life and role within Judaism and its ancestral form, Yahwism.

16.

Sarah is born Sarai in Ur Kasdim, or Ur of the Chaldees, believed to have been in present-day Iraq, 1,958 Anno Mundi, according to the Hebrew calendar.

17.

Sarah was the daughter of Haran and the granddaughter of Terah, an idolater who worshiped the Moon god Nanna and high-ranking servant of Nimrod, the king of Shinar, or Mesopotamia, but not of his wife, Amathlai.

18.

Sarah's name is a feminine form of sar, meaning "chieftain" or "prince".

19.

For Pharaoh's unintentional transgression against Abraham, he and members of his household, save for Sarah, are stricken with plague.

20.

Sarah eventually settles in Sodom, over disputes related to the livestock.

21.

Yahweh then told Abraham that Sarah would give to him a son.

22.

Sarah is buried in Kiryat Arba, in Hebron, in the Cave of Machpela.

23.

The Talmud identifies Sarai with Iscah, daughter of Abraham's deceased brother Haran, so that in this Sarah turns out to be the niece of Abraham and the sister of Lot and Milcah.

24.

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.

25.

In Genesis 17:15, God changes her name to Sarah as part of the covenant with El Shaddai after Hagar bears Abram his first born son Ishmael.

26.

Sarah was sterile; but a miracle was granted to her after her name was changed from "Sarai" to "Sarah".

27.

Sarah started from Beer-sheba to Hebron, asking everyone she met if he knew in which direction Abraham had gone.

28.

Abraham and Isaac returned to their home at Beer-sheba, and, not finding Sarah there, went to Hebron, where they discovered her dead.

29.

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, is blessed with a son, the prophet Isaac.

30.

Sarah 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.

31.

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:.

32.

Sarah is believed to be buried in the Cave of the Patriarchs.

33.

Savina Teubal's book Sarah the Priestess posits that while Sarah was indeed both Abram's wife and sister, there was no incest taboo because she was a half-sister by a different mother.

34.

Sarah is the focus of one of several stories collected in Sarah and After by Lynne Reid Banks.

35.

Sarah appears in Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible: Flawed Women Loved by a Flawless God by Liz Curtis Higgs alongside several other biblical women.