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| Of the Change of Name in Abraham and Sarah, Who Received the Gift of Fecundity When They Were Incapable of Regeneration Owing to the Barrenness of One, and the Old Age of Both.
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Chapter 28.—Of the Change of Name
in Abraham and Sarah, Who Received the Gift of Fecundity When They
Were Incapable of Regeneration Owing to the Barrenness of One, and
the Old Age of Both.
Now when a promise so great and
clear was made to Abraham, in which it was so plainly said to him,
“I have made thee a father of many nations, and I will increase
thee exceedingly, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall
go forth of thee. And I will give thee a son of Sarah; and I will
bless him, and he shall become nations, and kings of nations shall
be of him,”928
—a promise
which we now see fulfilled in Christ,—from that time forward this
couple are not called in Scripture, as formerly, Abram and Sarai,
but Abraham and Sarah, as we have called them from the first, for
every one does so now. The reason why the name of Abraham was
changed is given: “For,” He says, “I have made thee a
father of many nations.” This, then, is to be understood to be
the meaning of Abraham; but Abram, as he was formerly
called, means “exalted father.” The reason of the change of
Sarah’s name is not given; but as those say who have written
interpretations of the Hebrew names contained in these books, Sarah
means “my princess,” and Sarai “strength.” Whence it is
written in the Epistle to the Hebrews, “Through faith also Sarah
herself received strength to conceive seed.”929
For both were old, as the
Scripture testifies; but she was also barren, and had ceased to
menstruate, so that she could no longer bear children even if she
had not been barren. Further, if a woman is advanced in years,
yet still retains the custom of women, she can bear children to a
young man, but not to an old man, although that same old man can
beget, but only of a young woman; as after Sarah’s death Abraham
could of Keturah, because he met with her in her lively age.
This, then, is what the apostle mentions as wonderful, saying,
besides, that Abraham’s body was now dead;930
because at that age he was no
longer able to beget children of any woman who retained now only a
small part of her natural vigor. Of course we must understand
that his body was dead only to some purposes, not to all; for if it
was so to all, it would no longer be the aged body of a living man,
but the corpse of a dead one. Although that question, how Abraham
begot children of Keturah, is usually solved in this way, that the
gift of begetting which he received from the Lord, remained even
after the death of his wife, yet I think that solution of the
question which I have followed is preferable, because, although in
our days an old man of a hundred years can beget children of no
woman, it was not so then, when men still lived so long that a
hundred years did not yet bring on them the decrepitude of old
age.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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