HEBREW WORD STUDY – BEAUTIFUL SARAH –   SHARI  YAPAH  שׁרי יפה  

Genesis 12:14:  “And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she [was] very fair.”

“Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye.”  Shakespeare – Love Labours Lost

We let our culture and personal taste define what beauty is. Years ago when Madeleine Albright was the Secretary of State a poll was taken by Japanese men as to what American woman they would consider as the most beautiful.  The Secretary won the poll, even though she was 64 years old at the time she was still considered one hot number according to Japanese men. When asked about it she simply said; “Amazing.”

I remember I had a student whose wife just had a new baby and he came to class proudly bearing a photograph of his little daughter taken moments after she was born.  As this proud papa flashed this picture of this little red scrunched up wrinkly thing he asked that dreaded question; “Ain’t she beautiful?”  I figured if Abraham told a lie about Sarah being his sister I might also get away with one, so I said “yes.”

We understand that about the time that Abram and Sarah came into Egypt Abram was 75 years old and Sarah was 65.  We learn that she was very fair.  She was yaphah moed, very beautiful.  As a senior citizen, I have no problem believing a woman at 65 could still turn heads. It could be this Pharaoh who also found a 64-year-old woman beautiful might have himself been like me – just an old geezer.

To be fair, culturally, foreign women were prized as beautiful simply for their unique facial features.  Dark skinned women were even more prized as beautiful.  Sarah would likely have had darker skin than Egyptian women and distinctive facial features different from that of the Egyptian women. It may very well have been her uniqueness that attracted the Egyptian men.  But keep in mind we are dealing with an ancient Hebrew word that we have attached the English word fair or beautiful to and interpret that within our own cultural context.

The word yaphah simply means beautiful, goodly, and pleasant. Rabbi Samson Hirsch the 18^th Century linguist and Hebrew master relate this word yaphah to yapha’ which means to radiate or to burst forth, to emerge from darkness to project beauty. He also relates it to the word yaphat which means to create a sense of awe and wonder, to be something special.  When we trace this word yapah to its Semitic roots we find it has the idea of a specialness or a uniqueness.

No doubt Sarah projected a Helen Mirren type of beauty but I think there was more to it that which attracted the Pharaoh to her and caused his court to start whispering.  Classic Judaism teaches that the body and soul interact and when the soul takes the driver’s seat, so to speak, it overshadows the body.  Try it sometime, sit down with someone that you may not consider to be physically beautiful but has a very sweet spirit.  Just let that person talk about the Jesus she loves and suddenly her whole appearance will change and you begin to see something very beautiful. The Bible not only speaks of Sarah’s physical beauty but her flawless character and these two great qualities juxtaposed.  When the beauty without is joined with the beauty within, she stood out, she radiated something that caught everyone’s attention even that of the Pharaoh’s.  Most of us live with our bodies in the driver’s seat and we rarely let people see our soul.  But if we let our soul take control, I mean a soul that is radiating the love of Jesus,  maybe we discover the secret to Sarah’s beauty and if you could bottle it you would be a billionaire overnight.

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