Martha, a Christian woman
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G3136 names Martha, Lazarus' sister and Mary's sister, whom John presents as loved by Jesus, active in grief, serious in confession, and still learning at the tomb. Martha is not a shallow contrast to Mary in John's Gospel.
Reader summary
Full entry for Μάρθα (G3136) · Open the biblical lexicon
G3136 names Martha, Lazarus' sister and Mary's sister, whom John presents as loved by Jesus, active in grief, serious in confession, and still learning at the tomb. Martha is not a shallow contrast to Mary in John's Gospel.
The BSB source-word alignment has 13 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Martha (13).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 10:38. Its strongest book concentrations include John (9), Luke (4).
G3136 names Martha, Lazarus' sister and Mary's sister, whom John presents as loved by Jesus, active in grief, serious in confession, and still learning at the tomb. Martha is not a shallow contrast to Mary in John's Gospel. She goes out to meet Jesus, speaks honestly about her brother's death, affirms resurrection at the last day, receives Jesus' revelation that He is the resurrection and the life, and confesses Him as the Christ, the Son of God.
Later she serves at the Bethany meal while Lazarus reclines with Jesus. Her name helps readers honor grief that comes to Christ with pain, doctrine, limitation, and real faith.
G3136 follows Martha in John as a beloved sister who meets Jesus in grief, confesses resurrection hope, struggles at the tomb, and serves in the Bethany meal after Lazarus is raised.
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
John explicitly says Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. Martha's story begins inside Jesus' love, not inside caricature.
So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him, but Mary stayed at home.
Martha goes out to meet Jesus while Mary remains home. Her grief moves toward Jesus rather than away from Him.
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.
Martha tells Jesus that if He had been there, her brother would not have died. Her faith speaks with real sorrow.
Martha replied, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Martha affirms resurrection at the last day. She knows true doctrine, yet Jesus will lead her to Himself as resurrection and life.
“Take away the stone,” Jesus said. “Lord, by now he stinks,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man. “It has already been four days.”
At the tomb, Martha warns about the body after four days. Her confession is real, but she still struggles before the visible command of Jesus.
So they hosted a dinner for Jesus there. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with Him.
After Lazarus is raised, Martha serves at the dinner for Jesus. John presents her service inside a household marked by mercy and witness.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Martha, a Christian woman
:--Martha.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
13 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
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Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 4 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
G3136 matters because Martha's John portrait dignifies faith under grief. She is loved by Jesus before she understands His timing. She goes out to meet Him and speaks the ache many mourners feel: if You had been here, my brother would not have died. She also confesses true doctrine about resurrection at the last day, but Jesus does not leave her with doctrine detached from Himself.
He reveals that He is the resurrection and the life. Martha's later hesitation at the tomb shows that confession and trembling can coexist. Her service in John 12 then belongs to a household where death has been confronted and mercy has been seen. Teachers should resist caricature and let Martha show faith that is honest, taught, corrected, and still active in love.
John.11.27
G3136 is a personal name. Its pastoral force in John comes from Martha's scenes with Jesus, not from etymology or from importing a contrast from another Gospel without context.
Scripture gives voice to grief that still turns toward the Lord. John brings that pattern to Martha, whose resurrection hope is met by Jesus' own self-revelation.