On Mothering Sunday, we can remember the famous mothers of the Bible. Many of these mothers played an important role not only in the Bible, but also in history and theology. This is the story …
Mothers in the Bible
The Bible mainly mentions the names of men. After Adam and Eve, all these men would have had mothers, but few are named. In the Old Testament, some mothers also held the role of prophet e.g. Deborah, queen e.g. Bathsheba, ‘king’ e.g. Athaliah, and leader e.g. Miriam. This is not an exhaustive list, but here are some of the mothers, who are the most significant historically or theologically.
Eve – Mother of all Living
The first mother in the Bible is Eve. She is the first named woman and considered 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), but the daughters are sadly unnamed. The name Eve is used in modern biology and genetics, where the notional woman from whom all humanity stems is called the “Mitochondrial Eve”.
Noah’s Wife
Noah’s wife was aboard the ark 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 known as the Semitic people. For those who interpret the flood story as a global deluge that wiped out all humanity, then that makes Noah’s wife the ancestral mother of modern humanity. She is unnamed in the Masoretic text. However ancient Jewish texts called her Emzara, which is the name she has in the book of Jubilees and in the Genesis Apocryphon found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Hagar, Sarah and Keturah
When we come to Abraham, we have three women who are named as the mothers of his sons. The first is Hagar who bore Abraham his first son Ishmael (Genesis 16:15). The next mother was Sarai also known as 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 in the land of Moriah (Genesis 22:2). After Sarah died, Abraham took another wife (Genesis 25:1), when we read about 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 father of Sheba (Genesis 25:3). The Queen of Sheba, who may 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 know that Abraham had a large number of children by a number of mothers, it helps to make more sense of the promise that his descendants would multiply like “the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea 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 those born of a free woman in liberty like Sarah, to represent the old and new covenants (Galatians 4:24-26).
Rebekah – Ancestral mother of the Israelites
Rebekah (also spelt Rebecca) was the wife of Isaac, and the mother of twin sons Esau and Jacob. She is mentioned as 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 the Israelites.
Leah, Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah – Matriarchs of Israel
The next mothers in our story are the wives and concubines of Jacob. His wives were Leah and Rachel who were sisters as well as 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 “sons and daughters” are mentioned in Genesis 46:15, but it mentions only one daughter by name who was Dinah, and she went to Egypt with her brothers (Gen 46:15). These mothers became the four matriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Moses’ two mothers
Moses is the only person in the Bible with two mothers: 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 in the River Nile (Exodus 2:1-10). She was already the mother of Aaron and Miriam and posed as a nursemaid to raise 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 mention her, and unusually the name of their daughter is significant, to suggest that she is named 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 in the book of Numbers. It does not name his wife, but 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 should inherit their father’s property (Numbers 27:1-7). Up to that point only men could inherit, which seemed unfair to them.
God and Moses affirmed their request, and the Law was amended to allow daughters to inherit (Numbers 27:6-8). This was significant because it created a precedent that the Mosaic law can be challenged and changed. Later Zelophehad’s daughters inherited land and became mothers themselves. They are the first recorded women’s rights campaigners in history.
Deborah – Mother in Israel
Deborah was one of the Judges who led Israel during a troubled time. In her victory song after defeating the Canaanite general Sisera, she sang: “Villagers in Israel would not fight; they held back until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose, a mother in Israel” (Judges 5:7, NIV). We do not know if she was a biological mother herself although she might have been, but she was regarded as the mother of Israel, as their prophet, teacher and leader. Later in history John Wesley used the phrase “Mothers in Israel” to refer to important women in the Evangelical Revival, who played key roles in leadership and sometimes preaching.
Naomi and Ruth
Set at the time of the Judges, Noami was the widow of Elimelech and the mother of two sons Mahlon and Chilion. They came 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 became the mother of Obed, the grandmother of Jesse, and great-grandmother to King David. The story is told in the book of Ruth, which is the only 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 a great king who oversaw the building 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 mothers 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 significant as the only reigning female ‘king’ of Judah in the book of Kings. The story of Queen Athaliah used to be much better known. In 1733, she was made famous by an oratorio called “Athalia”, which was written by Handel.
Mothers in the New Testament
In the New Testament, as in the old, we read of some significant mothers who play key roles in the narrative. Five mothers are mentioned in 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 some were leaders and teachers in the Early Church.
Elizabeth – Mother of John the Baptist
Elizabeth was married to Zechariah who was a priest who served at 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 is known as Elizabeth’s Song which is recorded in Luke 1:42-44.
Mary – Mother of Jesus
For Christians the most famous mother in the Bible is Mary who was chosen to give birth to the Messiah (Luke 1:26-38). Her song known today as the Magnificat is frequently 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 least two daughters. She was at 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 known as 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 she was present at the crucifixion (Mark 15:40-41), and 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 usually 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 some of the early Christian communities, and two of the letters to him from St Paul are in the New Testament (1 and 2 Timothy).
Honouring mothers
Honouring your father and mother is one of the ten commandments (Exodus 20:12). Jesus was upset by the Pharisees who thought that this responsibility could 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 first commandment with promise” (Ephesians 6:2).
Mother Church
In the New Testament the idea of the mother took on theological significance, because the Church was called the bride of Christ (Revelation 2:2), and there was the idea of the Mother Church, which nurtures and cares for her children. St Paul also used the idea of motherhood for the Church which he called the spiritual Jerusalem. He wrote, “But the heavenly Jerusalem is free, and 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 original reason why this Sunday became known as “Mothering Sunday”, also known as Mother’s Day in the UK.
