MOTHER (’em, "mother," "dam," "ancestress"; meter). The female parent of a child, and an integral part of the family as seen in both the Old Testament and New Testament.

Position in the Old Testament

In one place in the Law, the mother is even placed before the father as the object of filial reverence (Le 19:3). The Psalmist depicts deepest grief as that of one who mourneth for his mother (Ps 35:14). In the entire Book of Proverbs the duty of reverence, love and obedience of sons to their mothers is unceasingly inculcated. The greatest comfort imaginable is that wherewith a mother comforts her son (Isa 66:13).

Position in the New Testament

What is true of the Old Testament is equally true of the New Testament. The same high type of womanhood, the same reverence for one’s mother is in evidence in both books. The birth of Christ lifted motherhood to the highest possible plane and idealized it for all time. The last thing Jesus did on the Cross was to bestow His mother on John "the beloved" as his special inheritance. What woman is today, what she is in particular in her motherhood, she owes wholly to the position in which the Scriptures have placed her. Sometimes the stepmother is spoken of as the real mother (Ge 37:10). Sometimes the grandmother or other female relative is thus spoken of (Ge 3:20; 1Ki 15:10).

Tropically the nation is spoken of as a mother and the people are her children (Isa 50:1; Jer 50:12; Ho 2:4; 4:5). Large cities also are "mothers" (2Sa 20:19; compare Ga 4:26; 2 Esdras 10:7), and Job even depicts the earth as such (Job 1:21).