Sarabi'as (2apa'3(«c), a Greek form (1 Esdr. ix, 48) of the name Siiereisiah (q. v.) in the Heb. text (Neh. viii, 7).
Saracens, originally the name of an Arab tribe, then api)lied to the Bedouin, and later to all the Moor- ish or Mohammedan people who invaded Europe, and against whom the Crusaders fought. The true deriva- tion of the word was long a puzzle to philologers: Du Cange deduced it from Sarah, the wife of Abraham; Hottinger {Bibliolh. Orient.') from the Arab Sdraca, to steal; Forster (Journey) from sahra, a desert; others from the Hebrew scvak, poor. The opinion most gen- erally prevalent is that the word was originally 'S/uii-- keyn (Arab. Eastern people), corrupted by the Greeks into JlapaicTjvoi, from which the Komans derived their word Saraceni. See Crusades; Moors; Spain.
Sa'rah, the name of two women in the Old Test., whose Hebrew names, however, are different.
1. The wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac.
1. Her Name. — The Hebrew form oi Sarah is tTnii, Sarah, which is the regular feminine of "itJ, sar, a prince, o(m\ so used and rendered (Sept., Josephus, and New Test. "Zappa, " Sara" in the A. V. of the N. T.). Her original name, however, was Sarai (q. v.), which is usually regarded as of kindred etymology. The change of lier name from "Sarai" to "Sarah" was made at the same time that Abram's name was changed to Abraham, on the establishment of the covenant of circumcision between him and (iod. That the name " Sarah" signi- fies " princess" is universally acknowledged. But the meaning of "Sarai" is still a subject of controversy. The older interf)reters (as, for example, Jerome, in Qitce'st. flebr., and tliose wlio follow him) suppose it to mean "my ])rincess;" and explain tlic change from Sarai to Sarah as signifying that she was no longer the (pieen of one family, but the royal ancestress oi "all families of the earth." They also suppose that the addition of file letter n, as taken from the sacred tetragrammaton .k'hovah, to the names of Abram and Sarai, mystically signilied their being received into covenant with the Lord. Among modern Hebraists there is great diversi- ty of interpretation. One opinion, keeping to the same general derivation as that referred to al)ove, explains "Sarai" as "noble," "nobility," etc.. an explanation which, even more than the other, labors under tlie ob- jection of giving little force to the change. Another opinion supposes Sarai to be a contracted form of <Ti*)b {Sera f/(th). and to signify "Jehovah is ruler." See Se- KAIAIL But this gives no force whatever to the change, and, besides, introduces llie element Jah into
a proper name too early in the history. A third (fol- lowing Ewakl, //eb. Gram. § 324) derives it from i^'^'Zj, a root which is found in Gen. xxxii. 28 ; Hos. xii, 4, in the sense of " to tight," and explains it as "contentious" {streitsiichtiy). This last seems to be, etymologically, the most probable, and differs from the others in giving great force and dignity to the change of name (see (ie- senius, Thesaur. p. 1338 b; Pfeiffer, in the Stud. ii. Krit. 1871, i, 145 sq.). See Proper Name.
2. Her Parentage. — She is first introduced in Gen. xi, 29 as follows: "Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai ; and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Jfilcah, and the father of Iscah." In (Jen. xx, 12 Abraham speaks of her as his sister, the daugliter of the same father, but not the daughter of the same mother. The common Jewish tradition, taken for granted by Josephus (.4?;/. i, 6, (5) and by Jerome {Qucesf. Ilebr. ad (Jenesin, iii, 823 [ed. Ben. 1735J) is that Sarai is the same as Iscah, the daughter of Haran and the sister of Lot, who is called Abraham's "brother" in Gen.xiv, 14, IG. Judging from the fact that Kebekah, the grand- daughter of Nahor, was the wife of Isaac, the son of Abraham, there is reason to conjecture that Abraham was the youngest brother, so that his wife might not improbably be yotniger than the wife of Nahor. It is certainly strange, if the trailition be true, that no direct mention of it is found in (Jen. xi, 29. But it is not im- probable in itself; it supi)lies the account of the descent of the mother of the chosen race, the omission of which in such a passage is most unlikely; and there is no oth- er to set against it, except the assertion of Abraiiam himself that Sarai was his half-sister, "the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother" ((ien. XX, 12) ; but this is held by many to mean no more than that Haran her father was his half-brother; for the c<il- loquial usage of the Hebrews in this matter makes it easy to understand that lie might call a niece a sister, and a granddaughter a daughter. In general discourse "daughter" comprised emy and every female descend- ant, and " sister" any and every consanguineous rela- tionship. (See Stempel, De A brahatno Matrimoitium Dissimulante [Vitemb. 1714].) In that case Abraham was really her uncle as well as husband. See Brother.
3. fler History. — This is substantially, of course, that of Abraham. She came with him from Ur to Haran, from Haran to Canaan, and accompanied him in all the wanderings of his life. Her only independent action is the demand that Hagar and Ishmael should be cast out, far from all rivalry with her and Isaac; a demand symbolically applied in (jal. iv, 22-31 to the displace- ment of the Old Covenant by the New. The times in which she plays the inost important part in the history are the times when Abraham was sojourning, first in Egypt, then in Gerar, in both which cases Sarah shared his deceit towards Pharaoh and towards Abimelech. On the first occasion, about the middle of her life, her personal beauty is dwelt upon as its cause ((ien. xii, 11-15); on the secon<l, just before the birth of Isaac, at a time when she was old (thirty-seven years before her death), but when her vigor had been miraculously restored, the same cause is alluded to as supposed by Abraham, but not actually stated (xx, 9-11). In the former case the commendations which the princes of Pharaoli bestowed upon the charms of the lovely stranger have been sup- posed by some to have been owing to the contrast which her fresh, Mesopotamiaii complexion offered to the dusky hue of their own beauties. But, so far as climate is concerned, the nearer Syria C(nild offer com- plexions as fair as hers; and, moreover, a jieople train- ed by their iiai)its to admire "dusky" beauties were not likely to be inordinately attracted by a fresh complex- ion. In both cases, especially the last, the truthfulness of the history is seen in the unfavorable contrast in which the conduct both of Abraham and Sarah stands to that of Pharaoli and Abimelech. She died at He-