Mothers of the Bible
Every named mother in Scripture — with the author and audience of her book and what she did for her children. Drawn from the Septuagint (LXX) and the ESV.
Old Testament & Apocrypha (LXX)
Eve
Genesis 3:20; 4:1-2, 25
The first mother — bore Cain, Abel, and Seth. After Abel's murder she named Seth (Σηθ, "appointed") declaring, «God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel» (Gen 4:25). The first hope of every grieving mother that God still raises seed.
Sarah
Genesis 17–23
After roughly 25 years of barren waiting she bore Isaac (Ἰσαάκ, "laughter") in old age by faith. She nursed him herself (Gen 21:7) and protected the covenant line by insisting Ishmael not share Isaac's inheritance — a hard mercy God Himself ratified (Gen 21:12).
Hagar
Genesis 16; 21:9–21
Cast out into the wilderness of Beersheba with her son Ishmael, she lifted up her voice and wept rather than watch him die. The Angel of the LORD met her, opened her eyes to a well, and promised to make Ishmael a great nation. She found him a wife from Egypt.
Rebekah
Genesis 24–27
Inquired of the LORD when the twins struggled in her womb and received the oracle «the older shall serve the younger» (Gen 25:23). Acted decisively to secure Jacob's blessing, then sent him to Haran to preserve his life from Esau.
Leah
Genesis 29–35; 49:31
Bore six of the twelve tribal patriarchs — including Judah (the Messianic line) and Levi (the priestly line). With each son she turned grief over Jacob's preference into praise: «This time I will praise the LORD» (Gen 29:35).
Rachel
Genesis 30; 35:16–20
Mother of Joseph and Benjamin. Died in childbirth on the road to Bethlehem, naming her son Ben-Oni ("son of my sorrow") with her last breath; Jacob renamed him Benjamin. Her tomb became the site of Jeremiah's lament (Jer 31:15) fulfilled in Matt 2:18.
Jochebed
Exodus 2:1–10; 6:20; Hebrews 11:23
Mother of Miriam, Aaron, and Moses. Hid Moses three months in defiance of Pharaoh, then placed him in a pitch-sealed ark (θῖβις) on the Nile — and was hired by Pharaoh's daughter to nurse her own son. Faith taught Moses who he was before he left her arms.
Manoah's wife (Samson's mother)
Judges 13
Received the angel of the LORD's announcement and kept the Nazirite vow on Samson's behalf from conception — no wine, no unclean food. Her quiet theological clarity calmed Manoah's panic (Judg 13:22–23).
Naomi
Book of Ruth
Lost both sons Mahlon and Chilion in Moab. Mentored Ruth into the kinsman-redeemer arrangement with Boaz and took the resulting child Obed to her bosom as her own (Ruth 4:16). Grandmother of Jesse, great-grandmother of David.
Ruth
Book of Ruth
A Moabitess who left her gods for the LORD, gleaned to feed Naomi, and bore Obed — placing herself in the genealogy of Christ (Matt 1:5).
Hannah
1 Samuel (1 Kingdoms LXX) 1–2
Wept bitterly at Shiloh, vowed her son to the LORD, and after Samuel was weaned brought him to Eli with the words «For this child I prayed» (1 Sam 1:27). Returned each year with a little robe she had made for him. Her Magnificat-like prayer (1 Sam 2:1–10) is the template for Mary's song.
Rizpah
2 Samuel (2 Kingdoms LXX) 21:8–14
When her two sons were executed and left exposed she spread sackcloth on the rock and from harvest until the rains drove off birds by day and beasts by night — for months — until David relented and gave them honorable burial. The most ferocious portrait of maternal grief in Scripture.
Bathsheba
2 Samuel 11–12; 1 Kings 1–2
Mourned the child lost to David's sin, then bore Solomon — «and the LORD loved him» (2 Sam 12:24). When Adonijah moved to seize the throne she went in to David and secured Solomon's anointing (1 Kgs 1:15–31).
The two mothers before Solomon
1 Kings (3 Kingdoms LXX) 3:16–28
«Give her the living child, and by no means put him to death» (1 Kgs 3:26). The true mother proved herself by surrendering her claim to save her son's life — Solomon's wisdom revealed her by her love.
The widow of Zarephath
1 Kings 17:8–24
Down to her last handful of flour and cup of oil she fed Elijah first by faith — and the jar did not run dry. When her son later died, she brought his body to the prophet, and Elijah raised him: «See, your son lives» (1 Kgs 17:23).
The Shunammite woman
2 Kings (4 Kingdoms LXX) 4:8–37
When her promised son died on her knees she laid him on Elisha's bed, saddled the donkey, and rode straight to Carmel — refusing Gehazi and softening words. Her insistence ("As the LORD lives, I will not leave you") brought Elisha to her boy, and he lived.
The mother of the seven sons
2 Maccabees 7 (LXX canon)
Watched all seven sons tortured and killed under Antiochus IV rather than eat what God forbade. To each she spoke in Hebrew, urging him to die faithful, and gave the Bible's first explicit confession of resurrection of the body and creation ex nihilo: «Look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed» (2 Macc 7:28). She died last, with her sons.
New Testament
Elizabeth
Luke 1
Bore John the Baptist in old age; filled with the Holy Spirit she was the first to confess Mary's child as «my Lord» (Luke 1:43, ἡ μήτηρ τοῦ κυρίου μου). Named her son John in obedience to the angel against family pressure.
Mary, the Mother of our Lord
Luke 1–2; Matthew 1–2; John 2; 19:25–27; Acts 1:14
Said yes to God: «Behold, the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word» (Luke 1:38). Sang the Magnificat. Bore, nursed, and taught Jesus. Treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart (Luke 2:19, 51). Followed Him to the cross and was given to John as mother. Persevered with the disciples in prayer in the upper room.
The Canaanite / Syrophoenician woman
Matthew 15:21–28; Mark 7:24–30
Cried after Jesus on behalf of her demon-oppressed daughter and refused to be silenced. «Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table» (Matt 15:27). Jesus called her faith great; her daughter was healed that hour.
The widow of Nain
Luke 7:11–17
Walked behind the bier of her only son, a widow now bereft of every protector. Jesus saw her and had compassion on her (ἐσπλαγχνίσθη), touched the bier, raised the boy, and «gave him to his mother» (Luke 7:15).
The mother of Zebedee's sons (Salome)
Matthew 20:20–28; 27:56
Asked Jesus for thrones for James and John — and was gently corrected. Yet she stood at the cross and went to the tomb on the third day (Mark 15:40; 16:1). Her sons did drink the cup He drank.
Eunice and Lois
2 Timothy 1:5; cf. Acts 16:1
Mother and grandmother. «From childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings» (2 Tim 3:15) — the ἱερὰ γράμματα (LXX) Eunice and Lois taught Timothy at home. Paul traces Timothy's unfeigned faith (πίστις ἀνυπόκριτος) to them.
Mary, mother of John Mark
Acts 12:12
Opened her home in Jerusalem as a meeting place for the praying church — where Peter came after his angelic jailbreak. Her son became the evangelist Mark.
Honorable Mentions
Women called “mothers” in Scripture without specific birth-children narratives:
- Deborah (Judges 5:7) — called «a mother in Israel» (μήτηρ ἐν τῷ Ἰσραηλ LXX) — the prophetess-judge whose courage rallied Israel.
- Sarah as mother of nations (Genesis 17:16) — «She shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her».
- Jerusalem as mother of God's people (Galatians 4:26; Isaiah 66:13) — «the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother» — the heavenly motherhood of the church.
Continue the study this Mother’s Day
Walk through the word studies behind every attribute of a mother in Proverbs 31 — from chayil (valor) to yir’at YHWH (the fear of the LORD).
Mothers’ Hope Lesson → All Discipleship LessonsAll scripture quotations from the Septuagint (LXX) and the English Standard Version (ESV).