We call her Mary … the New Testament Greek version of her name. But the name everyone called her in her day was Miriam … the Hebrew version of her name.
It means rebellion
I find that remarkable.
God chose to bring His son into the world through a woman named Rebellion. That says a lot about God’s message of reconciliation brought through Jesus.
This teenager stood before God as Rebellion and willing agreed to His plan of redemption being birthed through her.
I’ll bet Satan never saw that coming!
In Heaven’s courts, Mary was more than a teenager
You and I were represented before God in that teenager. So was the rest of the human race.
When Miriam, er … Mary, stood before the angel messenger and said, “I am the Lord’s servant, may your Word to me be fulfilled,” she was bowing Rebellion’s will to the Lord of Heaven.
She had a choice. She could have said “no” to having a baby in a nontraditional way. She could have said “no” to feeding the gossip chain in her town of Nazareth. She could have said “no” to God’s message to her. But she didn’t.
Rebellion said “no” to rebellion.
In Heaven’s courts, Miriam was more than a teenage, she was the doorway to our freedom.
And that freedom was Jesus.
Merry Christmas! … because a teenager chose to say “yes” instead of “no.”
Susan
“Jesus likes it when we share.” -Adelaide, age 3: Pass this along to everybody and their brother. OK, maybe not everybody’s brother, but you know what I mean … all of your friends would be nice.
This Post Has 3 Comments
Sadly, the 19th century concordances have wrongly connected Miriam with the closely related root word, mara or meri, meaning rebellious. Bitterness can lead to rebellion, too.
However, Miriam or Mary is connected with a closer related root word, marar, which means bitter, or myrrh.
The bitter herbs that the Israelites ate with the Passover meal, and myrrh used in medicinal and burial are symbolic images of the Passion of Christ.
Although Mary’s name doesn’t mean rebellion but means bitter, yet her name symbolized the myrrh for rebellious mankind.
Beth
The Hebrew dictionary I checked listed the meaning of Miriam as “rebellious.” I had learned that it meant “bitterness” in Bible college, which it does also. Miriam is a combination of the two.
I also found this site, which explains it well if you read the whole page:
“The root-verb מרה (mara) means to be contentious; rebellious against or disobedient towards. It’s used forty-five times in the Bible, and, obviously, the large majority of occurrences cover mankind’s disobedience towards God (Psalm 78:8, Isaiah 50:5).”
You can read more here: http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Miriam.html#.VKcrcSdgFfA
Interesting. 🙂
Ah, sometimes what we learned in college gets a little outdated, or needs some modification. That’s why I ended up in SE Turkey rather than in Iraq this last spring. LOL
The Abarim site does explain it well, but it does attribute her name to the word marar – bitter. But, I think rebellion does have a small play, too. Rebellion is bitter, isn’t it?
Another Bible translation I found worthwhile is from the Ancient Hebrew Research Center Revised Mechanical Translation:
Exo 15:20 and “Mir’yam – Bitter sea”, the prophetess, sister of “Aharon Light bringer”, took the tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her, (with) tambourines and (with) dances,
Jeff Benner has done a wonderful work with his Hebrew work, and has been of assistance to me.
שָׁנָה טוֹבָה
Beth