Person
Martha
The sister of Mary and Lazarus in Bethany, busy serving when Jesus visits; in John she declares her faith that he is the Christ.
See Luke 10:40, John 11:1, John 11:27.
A cooking pot marks Martha in the reading view: she was busy with much serving (Luke 10:40).
Mentioned in 12 verses across 2 books, first in Luke 10:38. The verses below are the ones linked to this person (the Theographic dataset, with our sourced corrections).
How artists have pictured her
3 works from different centuries and traditions. Each shows how its time and place imagined Martha, not how she looked.
_Beroemde_vrouwen_uit_het_Nieuwe_Testament_(serietitel)_Icones_Illvstrivm_Feminarvm_Novi_Testamenti_(serietitel),_RP-P-1887-A-11784.jpg)
_Vermeer_-_Christ_in_the_House_of_Martha_and_Mary_-_Google_Art_Project_(cropped2).jpg)
In the Bible
The first 10 of 12 verses, in Bible order. Text from the Berean Standard Bible; verse numbers follow the KJV.
Luke
- Luke 10:38
As they traveled along, Jesus entered a village where a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home.
- Luke 10:40
But Martha was distracted by all the preparations to be made. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me!”
- Luke 10:41
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord replied, “you are worried and upset about many things.
John
- John 11:1
At this time a man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
- John 11:5
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
- John 11:19
and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them in the loss of their brother.
- John 11:20
So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him; but Mary stayed at home.
- John 11:21
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.
- John 11:24
Martha replied, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
- John 11:30
Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met Him.
Events
Events the dataset lists Martha as taking part in. Dates follow its Ussher–Jones reckoning (one of several traditional counts), not established history.
- c. AD 29Jesus meets Martha and Mary
- no dateMary Anoints Jesus
Dictionary
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), as attached to this record by Theographic. The entry is for the name and can describe more than one person who bore it. Easton wrote in 1897, and some of his views are now debated.
Read Easton’s entry
Bitterness, the sister of Lazarus and Mary, and probably the eldest of the family, who all resided at Bethany (Luke 10:38, 40, 41; John 11:1-39). From the residence being called “her house,” some have supposed that she was a widow, and that her brother and sister lodged with her. She seems to have been of an anxious, bustling spirit, anxious to be helpful in providing the best things for the Master’s use, in contrast to the quiet earnestness of Mary, who was more concerned to avail herself of the opportunity of sitting at his feet and learning of him. Afterwards at a supper given to Christ and his disciples in her house “Martha served.” Nothing further is known of her.
“Mary and Martha are representatives of two orders of human character. One was absorbed, preoccupied, abstracted; the other was concentrated and single-hearted. Her own world was the all of Martha; Christ was the first thought with Mary. To Martha life was ‘a succession of particular businesses;’ to Mary life ’was rather the flow of one spirit.’ Martha was Petrine, Mary was Johannine. The one was a well-meaning, bustling busybody; the other was a reverent disciple, a wistful listener.” Paul had such a picture as that of Martha in his mind when he spoke of serving the Lord “without distraction” (1 Cor. 7:35).