Library / Commentary on Joshua, Volume I

Book I — De Iosue: Caput I — On the Genealogy of Joshua

Question V. Who [was] Sara, and whether [she was] properly the daughter of Ephraim, or of Beria?

Someone might suspect that this most choice woman had the same name as Abraham’s wife. But it is not so. For she [Sarah], in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, is called simply Sara (Genesis 17, verse 15); but this our [woman] is called in Hebrew Scheerah, in Greek Σαραά, and so perhaps it was written in the Latin copies. Nearly all judge her the daughter of Ephraim, and sister of those slain [sons] and of Beria. But since the discourse had been about Beria, it is immediately subjoined, “and his daughter was” — so that she seems the daughter rather of Beria than [his] sister; just as also a little below, “Moreover his son Rapha.” And the author of the Traditions wished to say this, when he says, “the sons of Beria — that is, Sara.” But because Scheera may be interpreted “surviving” or “remaining,” therefore, from someone’s [interpretive] note, or from another version, it is added in the Seventy — I know not in what sense — καὶ ἐν ἐκείναις ταῖς καταλοίποις. What if, for the sake of explanation, it had been written καὶ ἐν ἐκείνοις ἡ κατάλοιπος? That is: among those, or between those, who were cut down, she herself was the surviving one.

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Nicolaus Serarius, S.J., “Question V. Who [was] Sara, and whether [she was] properly the daughter of Ephraim, or of Beria?,” in Commentary on Joshua, Volume I, English translation, Mind of the Church, https://mindofthechurch.com/works/serarius-joshua-1/012-question-v-who-was-sara-and-whether-she-was-properly-the/.

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