Bible Dictionaries
Mother

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

is used (a) of the natural relationship, e.g., Matthew 1:18; 2 Timothy 1:5; (b) figuratively, (1) of "one who takes the place of a mother," Matthew 12:49,50; Mark 3:34,35; John 19:27; Romans 16:13; 1 Timothy 5:2; (2) of "the heavenly and spiritual Jerusalem," Galatians 4:26 , which is "free" (not bound by law imposed externally, as under the Law of Moses), "which is our mother" (RV), i.e., of Christians, the metropolis, mother-city, used allegorically, just as the capital of a country is "the seat of its government, the center of its activities, and the place where the national characteristics are most fully expressed;" (3) symbolically, of "Babylon," Revelation 17:5 , as the source from which has proceeded the religious harlotry of mingling pagan rites and doctrines with the Christian faith.

Note: In Mark 16:1 the article, followed by the genitive case of the name "James," the word "mother" being omitted, is an idiomatic mode of expressing the phrase "the mother of James."

denotes "a matricide" (No. 1, and aloiao, to smite); 1 Timothy 1:9 , "murderers of mothers;" it probably has, however, the broader meaning of "smiters" (RV, marg.), as in instances elsewhere than the NT.

"without a mother" (a, negative, and No. 1), is used in Hebrews 7:3 , of the Genesis record of Melchizedek, certain details concerning him being purposely omitted, in order to conform the description to facts about Christ as the Son of God. The word has been found in this sense in the writings of Euripides the dramatist and Herodotus the historian. See also under FATHER.