Names in the Bible (2)
A few important women: חוה,
שׂרה, הגר
André H. Roosma
18 Sept. 2025
After the introduction about names in
the Bible here the names of a few important women. (Ladies first, isn't it?)
חוה -
Chuāh / Chawwāh (Eva)
The first among them is of course חוה [H2332]. Traditionally we call her Eva, a modification of
her name in the old Greek Septuagint, where her name was transliterated as
Εὖα, which was pronounced as Eu-a. The
most likely original pronunciation of her name was Chuāh
(according to Jewish explanation: Chawwāh;
but both the old symbols and the transliteration of the Septuagint point in
the direction od Chuāh; in Greek the second letter here is a
u (oo) -sound).
Very significant is the old way her name was written:1    .
This can be interpreted from her creation as () flesh over () a stick, in this case: a rib (of
’Adam), () brought to life.
Her name can also be interpreted as a shout from
’Adam: () flesh
(of my flesh), () stick, that is: bone (of my
bones), () áh or
wow! (as exprression of joy and wonder)!
With a little wink I say that Eve in modern English was actually called
‘Flesh - bone - wow!’. This fits very well with
what the Bible tells us about what ’Adam said about her.
The Bible tells us also that she became the mother of all living: all
of flesh and blood (litterally here: flesh and
bones) through her indeed received life ().
חוה can also be seen as related
to the old verb הוה -
hawāh or huah - to live, to be there, and to חי - chai - life / to live.
שׂרה -
Sārāh
A second important woman was שׂרי - Sāraï [H8297], who later had her name
changed by God to שׂרה - Sārāh [H8283]. Traditionally, her name is seen as connected to the
word שׂר - sar - prince.
Sārāh is is the feminine form of it, so: princess. When
we want to relate Sāraï to sar, it would be ‘my
prince’ zijn, which dosn't sound logical, or possibly
‘princely’, which I do not consider plausible either.
So let us look here too at what the old script says. There
Sāraï probably was:    . The palmtree () was a symbol for the Tree of Life. And that tree
represented everything related to continuing life. So, her name
representeed that she would be the live () that God () gave (); for ’Abram, in the form of
offspring, that is. When ’Abram got a -
áh added into his name because he had become someone who was
faithful and worhipping God with joy ( ), God also changed Saraï - into Sārāh -
. Thereby she stood for the continuing life that worships God and/or
rejoices in Him. That was an important calling, related to the calling
of ’Abraham, to be a father of many peoples, or, more precicely,
of many God-worshippers!
הגר -
Hāgār
Sarah’s Egyptian slave-girl was named, according to the Bible, הגר - Hāgār [H1904] - traditionally
interpreted as ‘flight’, though thee etymology of that is unknown
(perhaps the related verb for to fly arose from her name,
from the fact that she fled). The old scipt had here:  - she revered the feet og the higher
other (’Abraham and/or Sarah) and/or of
the higher Otheer: God. This is significant, seeing her subdued position.
Hallelu YaH !
Notes
It is remarkable that the name of Chuāh is
mentioned only 2 times in the entire First Testament of the Bible
(Genesis 3: 20; 4: 1). In the story of the fall she is still nameless, she has
no identity yet! And later she isn't mentioned anymore either (only in the
New Testament, and there also only 2 times: 2 Cor. 11: 3; 1 Tim. 2: 13).
Your reactions (questions, additions, suggestions) are welcome via e-mail !
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