Susanna Krizo

In the Septuagint the word “shama” (to listen) is translated with “akouo” (to listen) in Gen 18.10. “Hypoakouo” intensifies the word “akouo” and hence the listening is done attentively. Incidentally the word “obey” in Hebrew is “shama” (to listen), and has always the idea of listening to someone and acting accordingly. In Gen 18.10-15 Sarah is simply listening. She does not act according to the words she hears, for there was nothing for her to do. She hears that she will become a mother and after the initial unbelief, she embraces God’s promise (as seen also in Heb 11). Hence Peter could not have written that Sarah obeyed Abraham, for he used the text found in Gen 18.

Chrysostom wrote that both the marriage of Abraham and Sarah was such that they both obeyed each other. Chrysostom was well versed in Classical Greek, and in both secular and Christian literature. Should we assume that he made a mistake in his assessment? Grudem tries to get around the fact that Abraham listen to Sarah by claiming that by doing so, they both ended up disobeying God. Of course he does not mention that by listening to men, many women have ended up disobeying God. Hence his argument proves only that he cannot give an example of Sarah obeying Abraham, for it does not exist.