five-petal flowers are about one inch (2.5 centimeters) across. In times of famine, the marshmallow’s white carrotlike root has been used for food. The sole Scriptural reference to the “marsh mallow” alludes to its tastelessness.

MARTHA

(Marʹtha) [Gr., transliteration of an Aramaic proper name meaning lady, mistress].

A Jewess and the sister of Lazarus and Mary of Bethany. (John 11:1, 2) Evidently Christ often visited their home when he was in the vicinity of Jerusalem. Bonds of affection existed between him and these three, for it is specifically said: “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.”—John 11:5.

Luke reports that when Jesus entered “a certain village” there “a certain woman named Martha received him as guest into the house.” (Luke 10:38) On the basis of Matthew 26:6, Mark 14:3 and John 12:1-3 the thought has been advanced that Martha was the wife or widow or even the daughter of Simon the leper. However, the Scriptures do not make any specific statements in support of these views.

On one occasion when Jesus visited the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha, Mary “sat down at the feet of the Lord and kept listening to his word,” whereas Martha “was distracted with attending to many duties.” Martha tried to obtain Mary’s assistance, saying: “Lord, does it not matter to you that my sister has left me alone to attend to things? Tell her, therefore, to join in helping me.” Obviously Martha was concerned about satisfying Jesus’ material needs. But Christ then emphasized the excelling value of spiritual things and gave her kind reproof, saying: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and disturbed about many things. A few things, though, are needed, or just one. For her part, Mary chose the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her,” (Luke 10:38-42) Christ would have been satisfied with one item of food, so that Martha too could gain some advantage from his teaching.

While it may seem that Martha was overly concerned with material things, it should not be concluded that she lacked interest in spiritual matters. After the death of Lazarus it was Martha who went to meet Jesus as he journeyed to Bethany, while Mary, at first, sat at home (possibly because of grief, or because of the many visiting friends). Martha showed faith in Christ when she said that Lazarus would not have died if Jesus had been present. She also acknowledged: “I know he will rise in the resurrection on the last day,” showing she believed in the resurrection. During that conversation Jesus explained that he is “the resurrection and the life,” pointing out that though one exercising faith in him died, he would come to life. When Christ asked Martha, “Do you believe this?” she clearly showed her faith in replying: “Yes, Lord; I have believed that you are the Christ the Son of God, the One coming into the world.” (John 11:19-27) This, of course, does not rule out the possibility of her having some doubts as to what Jesus could or would now do in her dead brother’s case. (Compare the apostles’ attitude related at Luke 24:5-11.) At Lazarus’ tomb, when Christ ordered that the stone be taken away, Martha said: “Lord, by now he must smell, for he has been dead four days.” But in response Jesus asked: “Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” That she witnessed when her brother was resurrected.—John 11:39-44.

After the resurrection of Lazarus, Christ departed. Later, he returned to Bethany and gathered with others, including Martha, Mary and Lazarus, in the home of Simon the leper. An evening meal had been prepared and again “Martha was ministering.” Lazarus was at the table and it was on that occasion that Mary anointed Jesus with costly perfumed oil. (John 12:1-8; Matt. 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9) The Scriptures are silent regarding subsequent events in Martha’s life and the time and circumstances of her death.

MARY

(Maʹry).

The Greek form of the Hebrew name Miriam, the meaning of which is not certain. There are six Marys mentioned in the Bible.

1. Mary the mother of Jesus. She was the daughter of Heli, though the genealogy given by Luke lists Mary’s husband Joseph as the “son of Heli.” Says M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopœdia, Volume III, page 774: “In constructing their genealogical tables, it is well known that the Jews reckoned wholly by males, rejecting, where the blood of the grandfather passed to the grandson through a daughter, the name of the daughter herself, and counting that daughter’s husband for the son of the maternal grandfather (Numb. xxvi, 33; xxvii, 4-7).” It is undoubtedly for this reason the historian Luke says that Joseph was “the son of Heli.”—Luke 3:23.

Mary was therefore of the tribe of Judah and a descendant of David. Hence it could be said of her son Jesus that he “sprang from the seed of David according to the flesh.” (Rom. 1:3) Through his foster-father Joseph, a descendant of David, Jesus had a legal right to David’s throne, and through his mother, as the “offspring,” “seed” and “root” of David he held the natural hereditary right to “the throne of David his father.”—Matt. 1:1-16; Luke 1:32; Acts 13:22, 23; 2 Tim. 2:8; Rev. 5:5; 22:16.

If tradition is correct, Heli’s wife, the mother of Mary, was Anna, whose sister had a daughter named Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. This tradition would make Elizabeth the cousin of Mary. That Mary was related to Elizabeth, who was “from the daughters of Aaron” of the tribe of Levi, the Scriptures themselves state. (Luke 1:5, 36) Mary’s sister, some have thought, was Salome, the wife of Zebedee, whose two sons, James and John, were numbered among Jesus’ apostles.—Matt. 27:55, 56; Mark 15:40; 16:1; John 19:25.

VISITED BY ANGEL

About the end of 3 B.C.E. the angel Gabriel was sent by God to the virgin girl Mary in the town of Nazareth. “Good day, highly favored one, Jehovah is with you,” was the angel’s most unusual greeting. When he told her that she would conceive and give birth to a son called Jesus, Mary, who at the time was only engaged to Joseph, asked, “How is this to be, since I am having no intercourse with a man?” “Holy spirit will come upon you, and power of the Most High will overshadow you. For that reason also what is born will be called holy, God’s Son,” the angel explained. Thrilled with the prospect, yet with fitting modesty and humility, she replied: “Look! Jehovah’s slave girl! May it take place with me according to your declaration.”—Luke 1:26-38.

To strengthen her faith further for this momentous experience, Mary was told that her relative Elizabeth, in her old age, was already six months pregnant, because the miraculous power of Jehovah had removed her barrenness. Mary paid her a visit and, when she entered Elizabeth’s home the infant in Elizabeth’s womb leaped with joy, whereupon she congratulated Mary, saying: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Luke 1:36, 37, 39-45) Thereupon Mary broke forth in inspired words magnifying Jehovah for his goodness.—Luke 1:46-55.

After a visit of about three months with Elizabeth in the Judean hills, Mary returned to Nazareth. (Luke 1:56) When it came to Joseph’s notice (likely through disclosure of the matter to him by Mary) that she was pregnant, he intended to divorce her secretly rather than expose her to public shame. (Engaged persons were viewed as married, and a divorce was required to dissolve the engagement.) But Jehovah’s angel appeared, revealing to Joseph that Isaiah’s prophecy was being fulfilled, that a “virgin will become pregnant and will give birth to a son.” Joseph thereupon complied with the divine instruction and took Mary as his wife, “but he had no intercourse with her until she gave birth to a son; and he called his name Jesus.”—Matt. 1:18-25.

BEARS JESUS IN BETHLEHEM

As this drama continued to unfold, the decree of Caesar Augustus compelling everyone to register in the town of his origin proved providential in its timing, for the prophecy concerning Jesus’ birthplace had to be fulfilled. (Mic. 5:2) Accordingly, Joseph took Mary, who was “heavy with child,” on the strenuous journey more than sixty miles (c. 97 kilometers) from their home in Nazareth in the N to Bethlehem in the S. The child was born under circumstances that compelled the delivery to take place under most humble conditions, where the newborn babe was laid in a manger, because there was no place for them in the lodging room. This occurred probably about October 1, 2 B.C.E.—Luke 2:1-7; see JESUS CHRIST.

After hearing the angel say: “There was born to you today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in David’s city,” shepherds hastened to Bethlehem and there found the sign: Mary’s babe “bound in cloth bands and lying in a manger.” They related to the happy family what the great angelic chorus had sung: “Glory in the heights above to God, and upon earth peace among men of good will.” So Mary “began to preserve all these sayings, drawing conclusions in her heart.”—Luke 2:8-20.

On the eighth day Mary had her son circumcised in obedience to Jehovah’s law. On the fortieth day she and her husband brought the child to the temple in Jerusalem to make the prescribed offering. The Law required the sacrifice of a young ram and a male pigeon or a turtledove. If the family could not afford the sheep, two turtledoves or two male pigeons were to be offered. That Joseph was a man of poor financial means is indicated by the fact that Mary offered either “a pair of turtledoves or two male pigeons.” (Luke 2:21-24; Lev. 12:1-4, 8) Simeon, a righteous man, upon seeing the child, praised Jehovah for having beheld the ‘Savior’ before dying in his old age. Turning to Mary, he said: “Yes, a long sword will be run through the soul of you yourself,” not meaning that she would be pierced with a literal sword, but, rather, indicating the pain and suffering she would undergo in connection with her son’s foretold death on a torture stake.—Luke 2:25-35.

RETURNS TO NAZARETH

Sometime later, an angel warned Joseph of a plot by Herod the Great to kill the young child, instructing him to flee with Jesus to Egypt. (Matt. 2:1-18) After the death of Herod the family returned and settled in Nazareth, where, during the ensuing years, Mary bore other children, at least four sons as well as daughters.—Matt. 2:19-23; 13:55, 56; Mark 6:3.

Though the Law did not require women to attend, it was Mary’s custom to accompany Joseph year by year on the trek of more than fifty miles (c. 81 kilometers) to Jerusalem for the annual Passover celebration. (Ex. 23:17; 34:23) On one of these trips, in about 12 C.E., the family was returning home when, after going a day’s distance from Jerusalem, they discovered that the boy Jesus was missing. His parents immediately returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple listening to and questioning the teachers. Mary exclaimed: “Child, why did you treat us this way? Here your father and I in mental distress have been looking for you.” Jesus replied: “Why did you have to go looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in the house of my Father?” Certainly the logical place for God’s Son to be found was the temple, where he could receive Scriptural instruction. Mary “carefully kept all these sayings in her heart.”—Luke 2:41-51.

This twelve-year-old boy Jesus displayed brilliant learning for his age. “All those listening to him were in constant amazement at his understanding and his answers.” (Luke 2:47) Jesus’ knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures reflected fine parental training. Mary as well as Joseph must have been very diligent in teaching and training the child, bringing him up in the discipline and authoritative advice of Jehovah, and cultivating in him the custom of attending the synagogue every sabbath.—Luke 4:16; Eph. 6:4.

RESPECTED, LOVED BY JESUS

After his baptism, Jesus did not show special favoritism toward Mary; he addressed her, not as “mother,” but simply as “woman.” (John 2:4; 19:26) This was in no sense an expression of disrespect, as might be understood from modern-day English usage. In German, for example, the word in this way denotes madam, Mrs., lady. Mary was Jesus’ mother according to the flesh; but since his spirit-begetting at the time of his baptism, he was primarily God’s spiritual son, his “mother” being “the Jerusalem above.” (Gal. 4:26) Jesus laid emphasis on this fact when Mary and her other children on one occasion interrupted Jesus during a teaching session by asking him to come outside where they were. Jesus let it be known that really his mother and close relatives were those of his spiritual family; that spiritual matters take precedence over fleshly interests.—Matt. 12:46-50; Mark 3:31-35; Luke 8:19-21.

When the wine ran out at a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and Mary said to Jesus, “They have no wine,” he responded: “What have I to do with you, woman? My hour has not yet come.” (John 2:1-4) Jesus here used an ancient form of question that occurs eight times in the Hebrew Scriptures (Josh. 22:24; Judg. 11:12; 2 Sam. 16:10; 19:22; 1 Ki. 17:18; 2 Ki. 3:13; 2 Chron. 35:21; Hos. 14:8), and six times in the Greek Scriptures (Matt. 8:29; Mark 1:24; 5:7; Luke 4:34; 8:28; John 2:4). Literally translated, the question is: “What to me and to you?” meaning, “What is there in common between me and you?” or, “What do I and you have in common?” or, “What have I to do with you?” In every instance where it is used the question indicates an objection to the thing suggested, proposed or suspected. Jesus, therefore, lovingly couched his gentle reproof in this form, indicating to his mother that his direction came not from her but from the Supreme Authority who had sent him. (1 Cor. 11:3) Mary’s sensitive and humble nature was quick to catch the point and accept the correction. Stepping back and letting Jesus take the lead, she remarked to the attendants: “Whatever he tells you, do.”—John 2:5.

Mary was standing alongside the torture stake when Jesus was impaled. To her, Jesus was more than a beloved son, he was the Anointed Messiah, her Lord and Savior, the Son of God. Mary was apparently a widow by now. Consequently, Jesus, as the firstborn of Joseph’s household, discharged his responsibility by asking the apostle John, likely his cousin, to take Mary to his home and look after her as his own mother.—John 19:26, 27.

A FAITHFUL DISCIPLE

The last Biblical notice of Mary shows her to be a woman of faith and devotion still closely associated with other faithful ones after the ascension of Jesus. The eleven apostles, Mary and others were assembled in an upper chamber, and “with one accord all these were persisting in prayer.”—Acts 1:13, 14.

2. Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus. At Bethany, about two miles (3.2 kilometers) from Jerusalem and a mile (1.6 kilometers) E of the summit of the Mount of Olives, Jesus visited the home of these friends for whom he had special affection. (John 11:18) On a visit by Jesus in the third year of his ministry, Martha, in her determination to be a good hostess, was overly concerned for Jesus’ physical comfort. Mary, on the other hand, showed a different kind of hospitality. She “sat down at the feet of the Lord and kept listening to his word.” When Martha complained because her sister was not helping, Jesus commended Mary, saying, “For her part, Mary chose