WOMEN OF THE BIBLE SARAH-GOODMORNING

1 Sarah and the Pharaoh of Egypt

Genesis 11:29-12:1-20

The opening verses of the story throw us in at the deep end.

Famine drives Sarah, her husband Abraham and their flocks southwards into Egypt.

In this strange land they are small fish in a big pond, uncertain of the treatment that will be meted out to them by the Egyptians – especially as Sarah is strikingly beautiful and likely to attract men’s attention.

So Abraham decides on a strategy. He will pass her off as his sister, not his wife. This way, men will be more likely to treat the group well. If they see Abraham as her husband, they may try to kill him to get Sarah.

Sarah agrees. Is she coerced into living this lie? Or is she the originator of the plan?
It is impossible to tell, since we don’t know what she feels about the matter.

Despite the later veneration of Sarah and Abraham, the Book of Genesis describes two people who are far from being saints. Later readers of the Bible gloss over the uncomfortable truths in this story.

What Abraham feared, happens. Reports of her beauty reach Pharaoh. Accustomed to the best, he has his soldiers take Sarah from her family, and pleased with her, he places her in his harem. Presumably he has sexual intercourse with her.

The reader is puzzled. Aren’t Abraham and Sarah supposed to be paragons of moral behaviour? Well, no. The hero of this story is God, not humans, and time and again he rescues people from themselves.

God has a long-range plan, and He is not going to let humans mess it up.

So Pharaoh and his country become afflicted with plagues, and when he finds out that Sarah is Abraham’s wife, he views his misfortune as punishment from the gods for his inadvertent sin of adultery. He hastily restores Sarah to Abraham, and pays compensation – even though it is clearly Abraham who is at fault. Pharaoh’s generosity contrasts sharply with Abraham’s venal behaviour. Read Genesis 11:29-12:1-20

Here’s something to do: Tell the story from the point of view of each character, one at a time. You’ll see how rich, how complex the story is.
2 Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael

Genesis 16

Sarah comes much more strongly into focus in the second part of the story. After many years in a loving marriage with Abraham, she is still childless – a terrible curse for any Jewish woman of the period, but especially for the wife of a tribal leader.

Eventually she has an idea. Speaking with great courtesy and formality to her husband, Sarah gives him her female slave, in the hope the girl with conceive a child to him. It is an ancient legal form of surrogate motherhood practised at that time – see for example Genesis 30.

A related situation is covered by the Laws of Hammurabi, in items 146 and 147:

146. If a man has married a votary* and she has given a maid to her husband, and the maid has borne children, and if afterward that maid has placed herself on an equality with her mistress because she has borne children, her mistress shall not sell her, she shall place a slave-mark upon her, and reckon her with the slave-girls.
(*a priestess who left her duties to marry; she was not supposed to have children)

147. If she has not borne children, her mistress shall sell her.

Children born in this way were counted as the offspring not only of the husband who fathered them, but of the wife who owned the slave. The slave in question was usually happy to comply, since her status if she bore a child was considerably raised, and her life became easier. She also had a large part in looking after the child, even though legally it belonged to the wife. (See Slavery for more information.)

In Sarah’s case, the plan is initially successful. The slave Hagar becomes pregnant, which is what Sarah thought she wanted.

But things go wrong. Neither woman can accept the change in Hagar’s status: Hagar is rude and disdainful to her former mistress; Sarah resents what she sees as Hagar’s new airs and graces. Dominance is the issue.

Her disappointment comes spilling out in bitter words:
‘Sarai said to Abram “May the violence done to me be on you! I gave my slave-girl to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, I became contemptible in her eyes. May the Lord judge between you and me!”(16:5)

Abraham points out that the girl belongs to Sarah, not him. Sarah, in other words, has legal jurisdiction over her – as she has to a lesser extent over the free-born women of the tribe.

The problem between the two women escalates into a real conflict, and eventually reaches the point where Hagar runs away, out into the desert – even though running away, if you are a slave, is a serious crime. Despite her pregnancy, Hagar is still a servant in the household – her words, and those of the angel, make this clear. (Genesis 16:8)

Hagar heads for Egypt, and home.

But God has pity on the unfortunate girl. God sends a messenger to save her, and she returns to Sarah, gritting her teeth and accepting harsh treatment from her mistress. (See Hagar for a fuller version of her story.)

Hagar’s baby is born. It is a boy. There is great celebration. Sarah, it seems, has achieved her goal.

But things get gradually worse. Her status within the tribe is greatly diminished, and as mother to the tribal heir, Hagar flaunts her newfound power. Sarah struggles against the humiliation and pain she endures, and lets Abraham know about it in no uncertain terms.

Her complaint is in vain. Nothing changes.

As you read the story, ask yourself why this particular incident was included in the first place:
to illustrate the powers of the head wife?
or the rights to which a slave was entitled, as in the Laws of Hammurabi?
Each story has a purpose.
Then God steps in again.

Read Genesis 16