Mother
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Gen. 3:20)—a woman in relation to the child she bears or raises; the Hebrew ’em is an ancient kinship term whose sound resembles simple infant speech in many languages. Scripture may extend “mother” to an ancestress or honored maternal relative (1 Kings 15:10). Eve is called “the mother of all living,” and biblical narratives repeatedly display the strength, sorrow, instruction, and tenderness of motherhood (Gen. 3:20; Prov. 1:8; Isa. 49:15). Children are commanded to honor both father and mother. Tobit’s counsel to his son to care for his mother and remember her labor expresses this duty with particular warmth (Tob. 4:3-4).