Sarah

AI summary: Sarah matters because the promise to Abraham is inseparable from the promised son who comes through her. The cross references present her as a woman caught in danger and displacement, yet also as the recipient of God's surprising word that she will bear a child in old age. Her motherhood of Isaac gives her a decisive place in the covenant line, and later biblical reflection sees her as a figure of promise and freedom. Taken together, the material presents Sarah as far more than Abraham's companion: she is a matriarch through whom the impossible becomes central to God's redemptive plan.¹

Princess, the wife and at the same time the half-sister of Abraham (Gen. 11:29; 20:12). This name was given to her at the time that it was announced to Abraham that she should be the mother of the promised child. Her story is from her marriage identified with that of the patriarch till the time of her death. Her death, at the age of one hundred and twenty-seven years (the only instance in Scripture where the age of a woman is recorded), was the occasion of Abraham’s purchasing the cave of Machpelah as a family burying-place. In the allegory of Gal. 4:22-31 she is the type of the “Jerusalem which is above.” She is also mentioned as Sara in Heb. 11:11 among the Old Testament worthies, who “all died in faith.” (See ABRAHAM.) ³