All throughout the Bible, mothers have played important roles in the lives of their children, their communities and the world at large — both behind the scenes and at the forefront.
In honor of Mother’s Day this year, Fox News Digital asked faith leaders across the country to weigh in on some of their favorite mother figures from the Bible — and to share why these women are noteworthy to them and to many others.
“A mother’s legacy lasts far beyond her own life,” noted Patti Garibay, founder and executive director of American Heritage Girls based in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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Here is what a number of faith leaders had to say about standout mothers of the Bible.
Women of the Bible
1. Yocheved, mother of Moses, plus other mother figures
In the book of Exodus, five brave women had to do what they believed was right in order to save the infant Moses from death.
Yocheved’s act of putting the infant Moses in a basket down the Nile River was one of “selfless love and courage that would eventually liberate a nation,” said Houston-based author Laura Gallier to Fox News Digital. (iStock)
The first were Shiphrah and Puah, two midwives who are named in Exodus 1:15.
They “defied Pharaoh’s order and allowed the baby boys they helped birth to live,” New Jersey-based Rabbi Cecelia Beyer told Fox News Digital.
Beyer is a rabbi at Temple Sholom of Bridgewater.
She was “desperate for Moses to escape his fate.”
After Moses’ birth, his mother, Yocheved (also spelled Jochebed), a slave woman, “hid her baby boy for three months and then sent him down the river, desperate for him to escape his fate, while his sister Miriam watched over him from the river’s edge until he was found and safe,” said Beyer.
“And finally, it was Bat Pharoah, the daughter of the very king who sought to destroy the Israelite people, who saved the baby from the river and raised him as her own,” said Beyer.
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Other faith leaders also pointed to Yocheved as an example of motherly love and courage in the Bible.
When she put Moses in a basket, Yocheved “was all too aware her precious child was afloat above countless lifeless bodies, baby boys who’d been forcibly drowned in that very river,” Laura Gallier, the Houston-based author of the Christy Award award-winning novel series “The Delusion,” told Fox News Digital.
Moses is shown holding the tablets of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. The infant saved from the water “grew up to become the prophet who received the Ten Commandments and was instrumental to the preservation of the Jewish people,” said one faith leader. (iStock)
Yocheved’s act of sending her son down the Nile River was one of “selfless love and courage that would eventually liberate a nation,” said Gallier.
Garibay of American Heritage Girls noted, “That infant, drawn from the water (the meaning of Moses), grew up to become the prophet who received the Ten Commandments and was instrumental to the preservation of the Jewish people and their escape from the slavery of the Egyptians.”
2. Hannah, mother of Samuel
The mother of the prophet Samuel, Hannah was one of the wives of Elkanah, and she was initially unable to have children.
Remaining faithful, Hannah promised God that if she were to have a son, she would “give him to the Lord all the days of his life” (1 Samuel 1:11).
The story of Hannah’s struggle to conceive and her steadfast faith in God is told in the First Book of Samuel. Hannah is a reminder, said one faith leader, “that I should never be afraid to pray — and trust God hears me.” (iStock)
“Hannah navigated many years of longing to be a mother. Her journey included deep pain and disappointment,” Pastor Jesse Bradley told Fox News Digital.
Bradley is pastor of Grace Community Church in Ashburn, Washington.
“The people closest to her provoked her and didn’t understand her longings,” he said. “She waited on God and cried out in prayer. Hannah poured out her soul to the Lord.”
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Katie McGrady, a Catholic author, speaker, and radio host based in Lake Charles, Louisiana, said she, too, is inspired by Hannah.
“I really love to contemplate Hannah in 1 Samuel,” McGrady told Fox News Digital via email.
Hannah’s “persistence in faith, and then her delight in a son and giving to God great thanks and praise, is a reminder to me that I should never be afraid to pray, and trust God hears me.”
“Here is a woman, at times mistreated by her husband and family because she cannot have children, who just patiently and fervently prays for a child,” she said.
McGrady continued, “Her persistence in faith, and then her delight in a son and giving to God great thanks and praise, is a reminder to me that I should never be afraid to pray, and trust God hears me.”
3. Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist
Elizabeth also experienced infertility, as Hannah did. Her story is told in Luke’s Gospel.
“The angel Gabriel promised Zechariah and Elizabeth that they would have a son, even at an advanced age (Luke 1:36),” said Bradley of Washington.
Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, shown second from right, met with Mary, center, while they were both pregnant with their sons in an encounter that is now known as “The Visitation.” (iStock)
The unborn child in Elizabeth’s womb, John the Baptist, “leaped for joy” in the womb when the pregnant Virgin Mary came to visit, noted Bradley.
Elizabeth exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb” (Luke 1:42) — which is part of the Hail Mary prayer.
4. Mary, mother of Jesus
The Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, is “the primary spiritual matriarch in scripture,” Bradley told Fox News Digital.
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“Giving birth and raising the Savior of the world is more than our minds can comprehend,” said Bradley.
“God chose Mary as a young virgin to fulfill this role, fulfilling prophecy about the birth of Jesus from the prophet Isaiah.”
The Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, trusted in God throughout her entire life — and never faltered in faith. (Andia/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
“Think of the many beautiful examples in the Bible — including Mary, mother of Jesus, the Savior of the World,” said Garibay of American Heritage Girls.
“Mothers matter,” she added.
Julie Clinton, the Virginia-based president of Extraordinary Women Ministries and author of “Women Following Jesus,” noted that Mary’s love for her Son never ebbed.
“Mary, the mother of Jesus, is a powerful reflection of a mother’s love,” Clinton told Fox News Digital in an emailed message.
“Even when Jesus was dying on a cross for humanity, He acknowledged her and her impact on His life with the statement, ‘Woman, here is your son’ (John 19:26).”
Clinton added, “The presence and prayers of a loving mother, plus her influence, mean everything.”
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