Maria or Mariam (i.e. Mirjam), the name of six Christian females
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G3137 names Mary, but John uses the name for more than one woman, so careful readers must ask which Mary is in view. Mary of Bethany is Lazarus' sister, grieving at Jesus' feet and later anointing His feet with costly perfume.
Reader summary
Full entry for Μαρία (G3137) · Open the biblical lexicon
G3137 names Mary, but John uses the name for more than one woman, so careful readers must ask which Mary is in view. Mary of Bethany is Lazarus' sister, grieving at Jesus' feet and later anointing His feet with costly perfume.
The BSB source-word alignment has 54 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Mary (46), of Mary (3), [as well as] Mary (1), [she] (1), [was] Mary (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 1:16. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (17), John (15), Matthew (11), Mark (8).
This entry includes 2 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
G3137 names Mary, but John uses the name for more than one woman, so careful readers must ask which Mary is in view. Mary of Bethany is Lazarus' sister, grieving at Jesus' feet and later anointing His feet with costly perfume. Mary the wife of Clopas stands near the cross. Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb, weeps, hears the risen Jesus call her by name, and announces that she has seen the Lord.
The shared name must not erase their distinct scenes. In John, Mary-language draws readers into grief, devotion, faithful presence at the cross, resurrection recognition, and commissioned witness to the risen Christ.
G3137 requires referent care in John: Mary of Bethany grieves and anoints, named women stand near the cross, and Mary Magdalene becomes a resurrection witness after Jesus calls her by name.
(Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was to anoint the Lord with perfume and wipe His feet with her hair.)
John identifies Mary of Bethany as Lazarus' sister and anticipates her anointing of the Lord. The name is tied to a specific household.
When Mary came to Jesus and saw Him, she fell at His feet and said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Mary comes to Jesus, falls at His feet, and speaks her grief. Her sorrow is reverent and direct.
Then Mary took about a pint of expensive perfume, made of pure nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
Mary anoints Jesus' feet with costly perfume and wipes them with her hair. John frames her devotion in relation to Jesus' burial.
Near the cross of Jesus stood His mother and her sister, as well as Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene.
John names women near the cross, including Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. Shared names must be distinguished by scene.
Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
The risen Jesus calls Mary by name, and she recognizes Him as Teacher. Resurrection recognition comes through the Shepherd's voice.
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them what He had said to her.
Mary Magdalene announces to the disciples that she has seen the Lord. Her witness is personal, obedient, and message-bearing.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Maria or Mariam (i.e. Mirjam), the name of six Christian females
:-- Mary.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 54 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Mary, Miriam
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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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 28 lexical occurrence verses.
Hebrew roots and equivalents that share conceptual or etymological ground with this Greek word.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G3137 matters because careless reading can collapse several women into one generic Mary and lose John's pastoral precision. Mary of Bethany belongs to the Lazarus household: she grieves at Jesus' feet and later pours costly perfume on His feet as the house fills with fragrance. Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene are named near the cross, where presence itself matters.
Mary Magdalene then becomes central at the tomb. She weeps, misunderstands, hears Jesus call her name, and goes to announce, I have seen the Lord. The name therefore teaches referent care and reverence for witness. John does not use these women as ornaments. He places them where grief, devotion, crucifixion presence, resurrection recognition, and announcement meet Jesus.
John.20.16
G3137 is a personal name shared by multiple women in John. Pronouns and surrounding identifiers decide the referent. The name itself does not authorize merging Mary of Bethany, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the wife of Clopas.
Scripture often preserves the names of witnesses so their faithfulness is not swallowed by the crowd. John does this with women who grieve, love, stand, hear, and testify around Jesus' death and resurrection.
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