By Faith Sarah . . . -- By: Clayton Croy

Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 21:1 (Winter 2007)
Article: By Faith Sarah . . .
Author: Clayton Croy


By Faith Sarah . . .

N. Clayton Croy

CLAYTON CROY, a United Methodist layperson, teaches Greek and New Testament at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. He has degrees from Asbury College, Asbury Theological Seminary, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and Emory University. He is the author of four books and several articles.

In the most famous chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, we find a litany of Israel’s faith heroes, punctuated by the repetitive phrase “by faith” (Heb. 11:1-38). This rhetoric device drives home the unmistakable theme of the chapter and creates the strong impression that faithful heroes are plentiful in Israel’s past. Chief among those heroes are Abraham and Moses, but brief attention is also given to the actions of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Isaac, and Jacob.

But in Hebrews’ gallery of faithful champions are women to be found? Most certainly they are, although they receive less of the spotlight. Their presence is sometimes only implicit, and they are often anonymous. For example, the people who passed through the Red Sea included a large number of women (v. 29). The judges and prophets mentioned in verse 32 might have called to mind Deborah (Judg. 4:4), Miriam (Exod. 15:20), and Huldah (2 Kings 22:14). Anonymous women are mentioned in verse 35 as having “received their dead by resurrection.” The capstone of the litany lists a variety of acts of sacrifice and endurance, most of which surely would have involved women (vv. 35-38).

In all of chapter 11, only two women are mentioned by name. Rahab is mentioned in verse 31 and commended (cf. James 2:25) for her faithful act of hospitality and protection of the spies. But the most tantalizing reference lies in Hebrews 11:11: “By faith he [Abraham] received power of procreation, even though he was too old—and Sarah herself was barren—because he considered him faithful who had promised” (NRSV). The peculiar mention of Sarah seems to be an aside, a parenthesis, even though it is hard to see how Abraham’s “power of procreation” meant much without her. (The New International Version similarly marks off the Sarah clause with dashes.)

The matter becomes more complex when one examines other translations, for example, the Revised Standard Version, which offers this translation: “By faith...

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