Greetings in the Name of the Lord,
One of my absolute favorite things to do as a pastor is answering questions around the bible and theology. It gives me a great chance to really dig into some of the skills I learned back in Seminary and often gets me to notice things I may not have seen before. I also firmly believe that curiosity is a key component of a healthy and mature faith. So any chance I can get to encourage or inspire curiosity, I am on board! Maybe there is a way to formalize a process around questions, like with a question box? If you have ideas on this let me know!
I digress...there was a recent question I did want to share in this space, maybe it will help get the ball rolling on other questions out there. During some of the discussions as part of our Advent bible study, a question arose about where the name Mary came from and what it might mean. This caught my attention because so many of the names of the bible have intentional meaning that is often lost in english translations. Here are a few examples: Emmanuel means God is With Us, Jesus/Yeshua/Joshua means God Saves, Israel (the name given Jacob after wrestling with God) means One Who Persists with God, Peter means Rock, my own name MIchael means One Who is Like God? (and yes the question mark is part of it). The list could go on and on.
After a little digging, I discovered that scholars are mixed on the meaning of the name. Mary, and its familiars Maria & Marie are all rooted in the Hebrew name Miriam. In Genesis Miriam is Moses' sister, which would imply the name, like the name Moses, is most likely of Egyptian origin transliterated to Hebrew. If it is Egyptian in origin, as many current scholars suppose it is, it most likely means something like Beloved or Loved by God. Ancient Scholars, assuming Hebrew was the root, supposed the name to mean Drop of the Sea, which led to the latin term Stella Maris (although stella means star, not drop, a typo of sorts since stilla means drop in Latin, the two words having only one letter difference). The name has also been thought to mean Rebellion, Exalted One, Hoped for Child, Strong Waters and Bitter Sea among others. Again all those are attempts at understanding a Hebrew rooted version of the name.
Given the lack of consensus offered by scholars, chances are that in Mary's time it was more likely a reference to Miriam of Genesis, an important prophet, rather than a name with a specific meaning. If anything, for me at least, it would imply that Mary was the actual name of Jesus' real life mother, not a name that was added later by those authoring the narratives of the Gospels seeking to add literary depth by giving specific figures more intentionally meaningful names. (i.e., in the prologue to Luke, theophilus means lover of God, and was most likely not a real person).
It should also be noted that there are many Marys across the Gospels, since it was an incredibly common name at the time (possibly the most common female name among the Jewish people). There are generally considered to be as many as 7 Marys in the Gospels, another Mary in Acts, and yet another Mary in Romans. Here is the list of New Testament Marys: Mary (mother of Jesus), Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany (John 11-12), Mary (sister of Martha) (Luke 10), Mary of Clopas (John 19). Mary (mother of James and Joseph) (Matt 27, Mark 15-16, Luke 24), the "other" Mary (Matthew 27-28), Mary (mother of John Mark) (Acts 12) and Mary of Rome (Romans 16). It should be noted that Mary of Clopas, Mary mother of James and Joseph and the "other" Mary are almost always considered to be the same person. There is also quite a bit of extended debate about whether Mary of Bethany, Mary Magdalene and Mary (sister of Martha) are the same person, although that is far less conclusive, and personally I tend to be of the mind that they are in fact different people. Regardless, it was clearly a very commonplace name, I am fairly confident saying it is the most common name of the New Testament, almost certainly beating out of the likes of John, James, Joseph, Judas and Simon, which is particularly interesting given that the culture of the day rarely highlighted women in narrative accounts.
I hope you found this interesting, maybe it sparked other questions and hopefully it got you to think a little deeper about the Bible and the Christian Tradition. If you have your own question, email me, or catch me after church, and I will be happy to do some digging and let the community know what I find.
In Peace, Mike
