The Name of Mary

The Blessed Virgin Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ, the mother of God.

The Hebrew form of her name is miryam denoting in the Old Testament only the

sister of Moses. In I Par., iv, 17, the Massoretic text applies the same name to a

son of Jalon, but, as the Septuagint version transcribes this name as Maron, we

must infer that the orthography of the Hebrew text has been altered by the

transcribers. The same version renders miryam by Marian, a form analogous to

the Syriac and Aramaic word Maryam. In the New Testament the name of the

Virgin Mary is always Mariam, excepting in the Vatican Codex and the Codex

Bezae followed by a few critics who read Maria in Luke, ii, 19. Possibly the

Evangelists kept the archaic form of the name for the Blessed Virgin, so as to

distinguish her from the other women who bore the same name. The Vulgate

renders the name by Maria, both in the Old Testament and the New; Josephus

(Ant. Jud., II, ix, 4) changes the name to Mariamme.

It is antecedently probable that God should have chosen for Mary a name

suitable to her high dignity. What has been said about the form of the name Mary

shows that for its meaning we must investigate the meaning of the Hebrew form

miryam. Bardenhewer has published a most satisfactory monograph on the

subject, in which he explains and discusses about seventy different meanings of

the name miryam (Der Name Maria. Geschichte der Deutung desselben.

Freiburg, 1895); we shall be able to give only an outline of his work. Fr. von

Hummelauer (in Exod. et Levit., Paris, 1897, p. 161) mentions the possibility that

miryam may be of Egyptian origin. Moses, Aaron, and their sister were born in

Egypt; the name Aaron cannot be explained from the Hebrew; the daughter of

Pharaoh imposed the name Moses on the child she had saved from the waters of

the Nile; hence it is possible that their sister's name Mary was also of Egyptian

origin. This seems to become even probable if we consider the fact that the name

Mary was not borne by any woman in the Old Testament excepting the sister of

Moses. But the question why was not the name Mary more common in the Old

Testament, if it was of Hebrew origin, is answered by another question, why was

the name Mary chosen by the parents of Our Blessed Lady and by a number of

others mentioned in the New Testament, if the word was Egyptian? Though the

meaning of Mary as derived from the Egyptian Mery, Meryt (cherished, beloved),

is most suitable for an only daughter, such a derivation is only possible, or at

best barely probable.

Most interpreters derive the name Mary from the Hebrew, considering it either as

a compound word or as a simple. Miryam has been regarded as composed as a

noun and a pronominal suffix, or of a noun and an adjective, or again of two

nouns. Gesenius was the first to consider miryam as a compound of the noun

meri and the pronominal suffix am; this word actually occurs in II Esd., ix, 17,

meaning "their rebellion". But such an expression is not a suitable name for a

young girl. Gesenius himself abandoned this explanation, but it was adopted by

some of his followers, e.g. by J. Grimm (Das Leben Jesu; sec. edit., I, 414-431,

Regensburg, 1890) and Schanz (Comment. uber d. Ev. d. hl. Matthäus, p. 78,

Freiburg, 1879). One of the meanings assigned to the name Mary in Martianay's

edition of St. Jerome's works (S. Hier. opp., t. II, Parisiis, 1699, 2°, cols.

109-170, 181-246, 245-270) is pikra thalassa, bitter sea. Owing to the corrupt

condition in which St. Jerome found the "Onomastica" of Philo and of Origen,

which he in a way re-edited, it is hard to say whether the interpretation "bitter

sea" is really due to either of these two authorities; at any rate, it is based on the

assumption that the name miryam is composed of the Hebrew words mar (bitter)

and yam (sea). Since in Hebrew the adjective follows its substantive, the

compound of the two words ought to read yam mar; and even if the inverse order

of words be admitted as possible, we have at best maryam, not miryam. Those

who consider miryam as a compound word usually explain it as consisting of two

nouns: mor and yam (myrrh of the sea); mari (cf. Dan., iv, 16) and yam (mistress

of the sea); mar (cf. Is., xl, 15) and yam (drop of the sea). But these and all

similar derivations of the name Mary are philogically inadmissible, ad of little use

to the theologian. This is notably true of the explanation photizousa autous,

enlightening them, whether it be based on the identification of miryam with

me'iram (part. Hiphil of 'or with pronominal suffix of 3 plur.), or with mar'am (part.

Hiphil of ra'ah with pron. suffix of 3 plur.), or again with mar'eya (part. Hiphil of

raah with Aramaic fem. termination ya; cf. Knabenbauer, Evang. sec. Matt., pars

prior, Parisiis, 1892, p. 43).

Here a word has to be added concerning the explanation stella maris, star of the

sea. It is more popular than any other interpretation of the name Mary, and is

dated back to St. Jerome (De nomin. hebraic., de Exod., de Matth., P.L., XXIII,

col, 789, 842). But the great Doctor of the Church knew Hebrew too well to

translate the first syllable of the name miryam by star; in Is., xl., 15, he renders

the word mar by stilla (drop), not stella (star). A Bamberg manuscript dating from

the end of the ninth century reads stilla maris instead of stella maris. Since

Varro, Quintillian, and Aulus Gelliius testify that the Latin peasantry often

substituted an e for an i, reading vea for via, vella for villa, speca for spica, etc.,

the substitution of maris stella for maris stilla is easily explained. Neither an

appeal to the Egyptian Minur-juma (cf. Zeitschr. f. kathol. Theol., IV, 1880, p.

389) nor the suggestion that St. Jerome may have regarded miryam as a

contracted form of me'or yam (cf. Schegg, Jacobus der Bruder des Herrn,

Munchen, 1882, p. 56 Anm.) will account for his supposed interpretation stella

maris (star of the sea) instead of stilla maris (a drop of the sea).

It was Hiller (Onomasticum sacrum, Tübingen, 1706, pp. 170, 173, 876) who first

gave a philological explanation of miryam as a simple word. The termination am

is according to this writer a mere formative affix intensifying or amplifying the

meaning of the noun. But practically miryam had been considered as a simple

noun long before Hiller. Philo (De somn., II, 20; ed. Mangey, II, 677) is said to

have explained the word as meaning elpis (hope), deriving the word either from

ra'ah (to see, to expect?) or from morash (hope); but as Philo can hardly have

seriously believed in such a hazardous derivation, he probably presented Mary

the sister of Moses as a mere symbol of hope without maintaining that her very

name meant hope. In Rabbinic literature miryam is explained as meaning merum

(bitterness; cf. J. Levy, Neuhebraisches und chaldaisches Wörterbuch uber die

Talmudim und Midraschim, Leipzig, 1876-89, s.v. merum); but such a meaning of

the word is historically improbable, and the derivation of miryam from marar

grammatically inadmissible. Other meanings assigned to miryam viewed as a

simple word are: bitter one, great sorrow (from marar or marah; cf. Simonis,

Onomasticum Veteris Testamenti, Halae Magdeburgicae, 1741, p. 360; Onom.

Novi Test., ibid., 1762, p. 106); rebellion (from meri; cf. Gesenius, Thesaur.

philol. critic. ling. hebr. et chald. Beter. Testamenti, edit. altera, Lipsiae, 1835-38,

II, p. 819b); healed one (cf. Schäfer, Die Gottesmutter in der hl. Schrift, Münster,

1887, pp. 135-144); fat one, well nourished one (from mara; cf. Schegg,

Evangelium nach Matthäus, Bd. I, München, 1856, p. 419; id., Jacobus der

Bruder des Herrn, München, 1882, p. 56; Furst, Hebr. und chald. Hanwörterb.

über d. alte Test., Leipzig, 1857-1861, s.v. miryam); mistress (from mari; cf. v.

Haneberg, Geschichte d. biblisch. Offenbarung, 4th edit., Regensburg, 1876, p.

604); strong one, ruling one (from marah; cf. Bisping, Erklärung d. Evang. nach

Matth., Münster, 1867, p. 42); gracious or charming one (from ra'am which word

does not have this meaning in the Old Testament; cf. v. Haneberg, 1, c.); myrrh

(from mor, though it does not appear how this word can be identified with miryam;

cf. Knabenbauer, Evang. sec. Matth., pars prior, Parisiis, 1892, p. 44); exalted

one (from rum; cf. Caninius, De locis S. Scripturae hebraicis comment.,

Antverpiae, 1600, pp. 63-64).

In 1906 Zorrell advanced another explanation of the name Mary, based on its

derivation from the Egyptian mer or mar, to love, and the Hebrew Divine name

Yam or Yahweh (Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie, 1906, pp. 356 sqq.). Thus

explained the name denotes "one loving Yahweh" or "one beloved by Yahweh".

We have already pointed out the difficulty implied in an Egyptian origin of the

name Mary. Probably it is safer to adhere to Bardenhewer's conclusions (l. c.,

pp. 154 sq.): Mariam and Maria are the later forms of the Hebrew miryam; miryam

is not a compound word consisting of two nouns, or a noun and an adjective, or a

noun and a pronominal suffix, but it is a simple though derivative noun; the noun

is not formed by means of a prefix (m), but by the addition of a suffix (am).

Presupposing these principles, the name miryam may be derived either from

marah, to be rebellious, or from mara, to be well nourished. Etymology does not

decide which of these derivations is to be preferred; but it is hardly probable that

the name of a young girl should be connected with the idea of rebellion, while

Orientals consider the idea of being well nourished as synonymous with beauty

and bodily perfection, so that they would be apt to give their daughters a name

derived from mara Mary means therefore The beautiful or The perfect one.

A. J. Maas

Transcribed by Michael T. Barrett

Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XV

Nihil Obstat, October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor

Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

The Catholic Encyclopedia: NewAdvent.org