Sandra staat niet in de Bijbel — maar Alexander komt vijf keer voor

Sandra is not in the Bible. But its full form very nearly is — and the cousins it does have in Scripture are not the flattering kind, which makes them more useful to us, not less. Sandra is a short form of Alessandra, the Italian Alexandra, from the Greek alexo, “to defend, help,” and aner, “man.” One who defends others. And Alexander, the masculine form, appears five times in the New Testament. What does the name Sandra mean? Defender of…