Sarah

Portrait of Sarah

In the expanded patriarchal histories preserved within the Book of Jubilees and the Book of Jasher, the figure of Abraham's wife emerges as a central participant in the unfolding covenantal promises, her life marked by prolonged barrenness that underscores the miraculous nature of divine intervention. These texts elaborate considerably on the terse Genesis account, portraying her not merely as a passive spouse but as an active agent whose experiences test and affirm the boundaries of fidelity amid foreign powers. Jubilees situates her story within its meticulous chronological framework of jubilees and weeks, emphasizing how her trials align with sacred timekeeping and the preservation of lineage purity. Particular episodes receive notable elaboration, such as the sojourn in Egypt recounted in Jubilees 13, where her beauty prompts Abraham's stratagem and leads to temporary separation, only resolved through divine plagues upon Pharaoh's household. The Book of Jasher provides further dramatic detail to this encounter, extending the narrative tension around her concealment and restoration. Similar dynamics unfold in the account involving Abimelech, where Jubilees 20 highlights the king's eventual recognition of the divine protection surrounding her, reinforcing themes of election that echo across these apocryphal works. Such expansions serve to heighten the stakes of the promise that an heir would emerge despite advanced age, a fulfillment tied explicitly to the covenant renewal described in Jubilees 15 and 16. Within the broader Enochic tradition represented by these pseudepigraphal texts, her narrative contributes to larger concerns with angelic mediation, moral boundaries, and the transmission of sacred knowledge from the antediluvian era onward. Although 1 Enoch itself focuses primarily on the Watchers and cosmic visions, the interconnected pseudepigraphal corpus uses her story to illustrate how postdiluvian figures maintain ritual and ethical continuity amid threats of assimilation. The eventual birth of her son thus stands as a pivotal moment of divine faithfulness, anchoring the lineage through which later revelations would unfold.

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Biography

Occupation
Wife of Abraham
Era
Patriarchal
Patriarch Jubilees Jasher

Did You Know?

1

Sarah was barren until old age when God promised and delivered Isaac.

2

She was taken by Pharaoh and Abimelech but protected by God.

Key Chapters

The Book of Jubilees 16 Birth of Isaac; Institution of the Feast of Tabernacles 7 min read Sarah is barren. God appears to Abraham and promises that Sarah will bear a son ... The Book of Jasher 15 On Account of Famine in Canaan, Abram goes to Egypt. Tells the People that Sarah is his... 2 min read Abraham tells Sarah to say she is his sister. Pharaoh takes her but is plagued; ...

Key Passages

Sarah's Barrenness and Promise

The Book of Jubilees 16:1-4

Sarah is barren. God appears to Abraham and promises that Sarah will bear a son in the appointed time. She laughs in disbelief but later conceives Isaac.

A1nd on the new moon of the fourth month we appeared unto Abraham, at the oak of Mamre, and we talked with him, and we announced to him that a son would be given to him by Sarah his wife.

2 And Sarah laughed, for she heard that we had spoken these words with Abraham, and we admonished her, and she became afraid, and denied that she had laughed on account of the words. And we told her the name of her son, as his name is ordained and written in the heavenly tablets (i.e.) Isaac, 4,5 And (that) when we returned to her at a set time, she would have conceived a son. And in this month the Lord executed his judgments on Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Zeboim, and all the region of the Jordan, and He burned them with fire and brimstone, and destroyed them until this day, even as I have declared unto thee all their works, that they are wicked and sinners exceedingly, and that they defile themselves and commit fornication in their flesh, and work uncleanness on the earth. 3 And, in like manner, God will execute judgment on the places where they have done according to the uncleanness of the Sodomites, like unto the judgment of Sodom. But Lot we saved; for God remembered Abraham, and sent him out from the midst of the overthrow. And he and his daughters committed sin upon the earth, such as had not been on the earth since the days of Adam till his time; for the man lay with his daughters. And, behold, it was commanded and engraven concerning all his seed, on the heavenly tablets, to remove them and root them out, and to execute judgment upon them like the judgment of Sodom, and to leave no seed of the man on earth on the day of condemnation. And in this month Abraham moved from Hebron, and departed and dwelt between 4 Kadesh and Shur in the mountains of Gerar. And in the middle of the fifth month he moved from thence, and dwelt at the Well of the Oath. And in the middle of the sixth month the Lord visited

Read full chapter: The Book of Jubilees 16 →

Sarah in Egypt and Gerar

The Book of Jasher 15:1-20

Abraham tells Sarah to say she is his sister. Pharaoh takes her but is plagued; Abimelech also takes her but is warned by God in a dream and restores her.

A1nd on the eighth day all the kings that had been with Enoch sent to bring back the number of men that were with Enoch, in that place from which he ascended into heaven.

2 And all those kings went to the place and they found the earth there filled with snow, and upon the snow were large stones of snow, and one said to the other, Come, let us break through the snow and see, perhaps the men that remained with Enoch are dead, and are now under the stones of snow, and they searched but could not find him, for he had ascended into heaven. ] Jasher Chapter 4 3 And all the days that Enoch lived upon earth, were three hundred and sixty-five years. 4 And when Enoch had ascended into heaven, all the kings of the earth rose and took Methuselah his son and anointed him, and they caused him to reign over them in the place of his father. 5 And Methuselah acted uprightly in the sight of God, as his father Enoch had taught him, and he likewise during the whole of his life taught the sons of men wisdom, knowledge and the fear of God, and he did not turn from the good way either to the right or to the left. 6 But in the latter days of Methuselah, the sons of men turned from the Lord, they corrupted the earth, they robbed and plundered each other, and they rebelled against God and they transgressed, and they corrupted their ways, and would not hearken to the voice of Methuselah, but rebelled against him. 7 And the Lord was exceedingly wroth against them, and the Lord continued to destroy the seed in those days, so that there was neither sowing nor reaping in the earth. 8 For when they sowed the ground in order that they might obtain food for their support, behold, thorns and thistles were produced which they did not sow. 7.

Read full chapter: The Book of Jasher 15 →

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