On Mothering Sunday, we are able to remember the famous moms of the Bible. Many of those moms played a vital role not only within the Bible, but additionally in history and theology. This is the story …
Mothers within the Bible
The Bible mainly mentions the names of men. After Adam and Eve, all these men would have had moms, but few are named. In the Old Testament, some moms also held the role of prophet e.g. Deborah, queen e.g. Bathsheba, ‘king’ e.g. Athaliah, and leader e.g. Miriam. This will not be an exhaustive list, but listed here are a number of the moms, who’re probably the most significant historically or theologically.
Eve – Mother of all Living
The first mother within the Bible is Eve. She is the primary named woman and regarded the “mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20 KJV). After Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, she gave birth to Cain, Abel, Seth “and daughters” (Genesis 5:4), however the daughters are sadly unnamed. The name Eve is utilized in modern biology and genetics, where the notional woman from whom all humanity stems is known as the “Mitochondrial Eve”.
Noah’s Wife
Noah’s wife was aboard the ark along with her husband Noah, and their three sons Shem, Ham and Japheth and their wives (Genesis 7:7-13), making eight people (1 Peter 3:20). The descendants of Shem are often called the Semitic people. For those that interpret the flood story as a world deluge that worn out all humanity, then that makes Noah’s wife the ancestral mother of recent humanity. She is unnamed within the Masoretic text. However ancient Jewish texts called her Emzara, which is the name she has within the book of Jubilees and within the Genesis Apocryphon present in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Hagar, Sarah and Keturah
When we come to Abraham, we now have three women who’re named because the moms of his sons. The first is Hagar who bore Abraham his first son Ishmael (Genesis 16:15). The next mother was Sarai also often called Sarah, the wife of Abraham, who in her old age became the mother of Isaac (Genesis 21:1-10), who Abraham took for an aborted sacrifice within the land of Moriah (Genesis 22:2). After Sarah died, Abraham took one other wife (Genesis 25:1), after we read in regards to the often-overlooked Keturah who was mother to Abraham’s later sons (Genesis 25:2) called Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah (Genesis 25:3).
Midian was the ancestor of the Midianites who Moses met, and Jokshan was the daddy of Sheba (Genesis 25:3). The Queen of Sheba, who can have been a mother herself, later met King Solomon (1 Kings 10:1-10). Abraham had more sons by other concubines (Genesis 25:6). When we all know that Abraham had numerous children by quite a few moms, it helps to make more sense of the promise that his descendants would multiply like “the celebs of the heaven, and because the sand which is upon the ocean shore” (Genesis 22:17). In Galatians, Hagar and Sarah are used as theological analogies of those born into the slavery of the law like Hagar, and people born of a free woman in liberty like Sarah, to represent the old and latest covenants (Galatians 4:24-26).
Rebekah – Ancestral mother of the Israelites
Rebekah (also spelt Rebecca) was the wife of Isaac, and the mother of dual sons Esau and Jacob. She is mentioned because the daughter of Bethuel, son of Nahor, who was Abraham’s brother (Genesis 22:21-23). This made her Isaac’s first cousin once removed. It was Jacob who took the name of Israel, and so she was the ancestral mother of all of the Israelites.
Leah, Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah – Matriarchs of Israel
The next moms in our story are the wives and concubines of Jacob. His wives were Leah and Rachel who were sisters in addition to his cousins, as daughters of Rebekah’s brother Laban. Along with their handmaids Bilhah and Zilpah, they gave birth to many children. The Bible mentions the names of twelve sons of Jacob, alias Israel. Both “little children” are mentioned in Genesis 46:15, but it surely mentions just one daughter by name who was Dinah, and he or she went to Egypt along with her brothers (Gen 46:15). These moms became the 4 matriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Moses’ two moms
Moses is the one person within the Bible with two moms: a birth mother and an adopted mother. His birth mother Jochebed saved Moses from likely death by putting him in a bulrush basket and floating him within the River Nile (Exodus 2:1-10). She was already the mother of Aaron and Miriam and posed as a nursemaid to lift Moses for the Pharoah’s daughter, who became Moses’s adopted mother. By rescuing Moses, his adopted mother enabled the redemption of the Israelites from slavery.
Some people wonder if the Pharoah’s daughter was Bithiah, who married Mered because she was “a daughter of the king of Egypt”. The text mentions that she “had a daughter, Miriam, and two sons, Shammai and Ishbah” (1 Chronicles 4:17). That she was royal was significant enough to say her, and unusually the name of their daughter is important, to suggest that she is known as after Moses’s sister Miriam, who herself was called a prophet (Exodus 15:20).
Zelophehad’s Widow and Daughters
The story of Zelophehad is told within the book of Numbers. It doesn’t name his wife, however the text does name his five daughters as Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah (Numbers 26:33). After Zelophehad died his widow encouraged her brave daughters to lobby Moses and ask for inheritance rights, because she had no sons. Her daughters persuaded Moses that they need to inherit their father’s property (Numbers 27:1-7). Up to that time only men could inherit, which seemed unfair to them.
God and Moses affirmed their request, and the Law was amended to permit daughters to inherit (Numbers 27:6-8). This was significant since it created a precedent that the Mosaic law could be challenged and altered. Later Zelophehad’s daughters inherited land and have become moms themselves. They are the primary recorded women’s rights campaigners in history.
Deborah – Mother in Israel
Deborah was one in all the Judges who led Israel during a troubled time. In her victory song after defeating the Canaanite general Sisera, she sang: “Villagers in Israel wouldn’t fight; they held back until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose, a mother in Israel” (Judges 5:7, NIV). We have no idea if she was a biological mother herself although she may need been, but she was thought to be the mother of Israel, as their prophet, teacher and leader. Later in history John Wesley used the phrase “Mothers in Israel” to consult with necessary women within the Evangelical Revival, who played key roles in leadership and sometimes preaching.
Naomi and Ruth
Set on the time of the Judges, Noami was the widow of Elimelech and the mother of two sons Mahlon and Chilion. They got here to the land of Moab where her sons died, leaving her with two widowed daughters-in-law called Orpah and Ruth (Ruth 1:1-6). Naomi returned to Bethlehem with Ruth (Ruth 1:19-22) who married Boaz, and have become the mother of Obed, the grandmother of Jesse, and great-grandmother to King David. The story is told within the book of Ruth, which is the one book of the Bible named after a mother.
Bathsheba – Mother of Solomon
King David had many wives, and he had an affair with the wife of Uriah, who he later married. The child of their affair died (2 Samuel 11:26-27), but she later had a son Solomon (2 Samuel 12:24). Solomon was an amazing king who oversaw the constructing of the Temple at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah. We are told that the queen mother Bathsheba had a throne next to Solomon’s and sat at his right hand (1 Kings 2:19).
Queen Athaliah
The moms of many kings of Judah are mentioned. Athaliah was the wife of King Jehoram of Judah, and the daughter of Omri, King of Israel and the mother of King Ahaziah (2 Kings 8:26). She later ruled Judah after her son’s death (2 Kings 11:1-3). She was overthrown in a coup led by the priest Jehoiada, who installed her grandson Joash as king (2 Kings 11:13-16). She is important because the only reigning female ‘king’ of Judah within the book of Kings. The story of Queen Athaliah was once significantly better known. In 1733, she was made famous by an oratorio called “Athalia”, which was written by Handel.
Mothers within the New Testament
In the New Testament, as within the old, we read of some significant moms who play key roles within the narrative. Five moms are mentioned within the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:1-17), which is unusual because genealogies in biblical times tended to only list men. These women are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Mary. Mothers were amongst Jesus’s disciples, and a few were leaders and teachers within the Early Church.
Elizabeth – Mother of John the Baptist
Elizabeth was married to Zechariah who was a priest who served on the Temple in Jerusalem. She conceived a son in her old age (Luke 1:5-25), who became John the Baptist. She was a relative of Mary, our next mother. Upon meeting Mary, she spoke what’s often called Elizabeth’s Song which is recorded in Luke 1:42-44.
Mary – Mother of Jesus
For Christians probably the most famous mother within the Bible is Mary who was chosen to offer birth to the Messiah (Luke 1:26-38). Her song known today because the Magnificat is often sung in liturgical churches. It seems that she and her husband Joseph later had other children including sons called James, Joseph (also called Joses), and Judas (also called Jude) and at the least two daughters. She was on the crucifixion and at Pentecost. Two of her other sons are believed to be the writers of the epistles of James and Jude. In the Orthodox Church, Mary is often called the “Theotokos” or “Mother of God”.
Salome – Mother of James and John
Salome was the wife of Zebedee and the mother of James and John (Matthew 27:56 and Mark 15:40). She asked Jesus if her sons could sit at his right and left hand in His kingdom (Matthew 20:20-29). She herself was also a follower of Jesus and he or she was present on the crucifixion (Mark 15:40-41), and he or she visited his empty tomb after the resurrection (Mark 16:1).
Mary – Mother of Mark
Another Mary was the mother of John Mark. Early Christian meetings were held in her house in Jerusalem (Acts 12:12). Her son John Mark later became a missionary and a companion to Paul and Barnabas, and is frequently considered to be the Mark who wrote the Gospel of Mark.
Eunice and Lois
Eunice was Timothy’s mother, and Lois was her mother. Eunice was a Jewish woman married to the Greek man (Acts 16:1) living at Lystra, and was known for her strong faith. She taught Timothy the Scriptures alongside her own mother, Lois (2 Timothy 1:5). Timothy went as a missionary and leader to a number of the early Christian communities, and two of the letters to him from St Paul are within the New Testament (1 and a couple of Timothy).
Honouring moms
Honouring your father and mother is one in all the ten commandments (Exodus 20:12). Jesus was upset by the Pharisees who thought that this responsibility could possibly be avoided by their theology, using a legalist device which they called ‘Corban’ (Matthew 7:10-13), which was used to annul the spirit of the Law. St Paul wrote: “Honour thy father and mother; which is the primary commandment with promise” (Ephesians 6:2).
Mother Church
In the New Testament the thought of the mother took on theological significance, since the Church was called the bride of Christ (Revelation 2:2), and there was the thought of the Mother Church, which nurtures and cares for her children. St Paul also used the thought of motherhood for the Church which he called the spiritual Jerusalem. He wrote, “But the heavenly Jerusalem is free, and he or she is our mother” (Galatians 4:26 GNB). From mediaeval times the passage Galatians 4:21-31, was the annual lectionary epistle reading for the fourth Sunday in Lent , and the reference to ‘mother’, was the unique reason why this Sunday became often called “Mothering Sunday”, also often called Mother’s Day within the UK.
