St. Paul’s Adult Forum
Spring 2008
Women of the Bible
Introduction - March 30
During this ten week session we will take a look at a number of different women
in the Bible. Five weeks will focus on women of the Old Testament, and five
will focus on women of the New Testament. Some of the women have positions of
power, some have status because of their husband or family, some are victims,
some are perpetrators, and some are not even named. What they all have in
common is a place in our scriptures, and we will seek to understand their rich
stories in the context in which they occurred and were told, considering always
what their stories might have to tell us today.
Today we will begin by looking at the very start of the story of Sarah (Genesis 12). In this chapter we see the first account of God’s call to Abraham to uproot his family and travel to the land of Canaan. In addition, we encounter the story of Abraham’s deception of the Egyptians as he asks Sarah (Sarai) to say she is his sister.
 | Do we know what Sarah’s reaction is to the move to Canaan? Why might this be the case? |
| Why do Abraham and his family go to Egypt? Why does he tell Sarah to lie? |
| What is the result of the deception? How does this story make Abraham look? How does it make Sarah look? and God? |
| Have you ever asked someone to lie in order to protect yourself? Has anyone ever asked you to? What dilemma the person asked to lie face? |
FOR NEXT WEEK: Genesis 16 - 18, 21, 23 - 28
Think about the relationship between Sarah and Hagar. Think about Rebekah’s role in the life of her family. What are the positive qualities of each woman? What are the negative qualities?