Sarah or Sara (/ˈsɛərə/;Hebrew: שָׂרָה, Modern Sara, Tiberian Śārā ISO 259-3 Śarra; Latin: Sara; Arabic: سارا or سارة Sāra;) was the wife and half–sister of Abraham and the mother of Isaac as described in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. Her name was originally Sarai. According to Genesis 17:15, God changed her name to Sarah as part of a covenant after Hagar bore Abraham his first son, Ishmael.

The Hebrew name Sarah indicates a woman of high rank and is translated as "princess" or "noblewoman".

In the Hebrew Bible

Sarah was the wife of Abraham, as well as being his half-sister, the daughter of his father Terah. Sarah was approximately ten years younger than her husband.

She was considered beautiful to the point that Abraham feared that when they were near more powerful rulers she would be taken away and given to another man. Twice he purposely identified her as being only his sister so that he would be "treated well" for her sake. No reason is given why Sarah remained barren (childless) for a long period of time. She was originally called "Sarai", which is translated "my princess". Later she was called "Sarah", i.e., "princess".

Sarah Jane Smith is a fictional character played by Elisabeth Sladen in the long-running BBC Television science fiction series Doctor Who and two of its spin-offs. In the fictional universe of Doctor Who and its spin-offs, Sarah Jane is a dogged investigative journalist who first encounters alien time traveller the Doctor while trying to break a story on a top secret research facility, and subsequently becomes his travelling companion on a series of adventures spanning the breadth of space and time. After travelling with the Doctor in four seasons of the show they suddenly part ways, and after this she continues to investigate strange goings-on back on Earth. Over time, Sarah Jane establishes herself as a committed defender of Earth from alien invasions and other supernatural threats, occasionally reuniting with the Doctor in the course of her own adventures, all the while continuing to work as a freelance investigative journalist.

Sarah Jane is one of the Doctor's longest-serving companions, co-starring in 18 stories with the Third and Fourth incarnations of the Doctor, on the programme from 1973 to 1976 (seasons 11 – 14). She and robotic dog K-9 appear in the 1981 television pilot K-9 and Company. She returned in the 20th-anniversary Fifth Doctor story The Five Doctors (1983) and the 30th-anniversary story Dimensions In Time (1993). After the programme's revival in 2005, she appears in several episodes with the Tenth Doctor, and once with the Eleventh Doctor, and as the central character of her own series The Sarah Jane Adventures from 2007 to 2011.

Sarah: Women of Genesis (2000) is the first novel in the Women of Genesis series by Orson Scott Card.

Plot introduction

Sarah follows the story of Abraham through the eyes and perspective of Sarah. The Biblical account of the life of Sarah is contained in Genesis 12 - 22 (about 16 pages) most of which is centered around Abraham. Card expands the story into a novel of over 300 pages, so many of the details and characters are fictional. The core story-line does not deviate from the story told in Genesis, although some of the details are reinterpreted.

Sarah begins life as a princess of Ur in Mesopotamia. She is hard-working and humble especially compared to her older sister Qira. Sarai is promised to become a priestess for the goddess Asherah, while Qira is to marry a desert prince named Lot. Sarai's thoughts on a life as a priestess change when Lot arrives with his uncle Abram who promises Sarai that he'll come back and marry her.

See also