Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/519

 VIRGIN

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VIRGIN

meaning of the Hobrow form mil yarn, nardonliewer has pulilished a most satisfactory monograph on lliis subjeot, in which he explains and discusses about seventy different meanings of the name miryam (Dor Name Maria. Geschichte der Deutung desselben. Freiburg, 1895); we shall be able to give only an outline of his work. Fr. von Hummelauer (in Exod. et Levit., Paris, 1897, p. 161) mentions the possibility that miryam may be of Egj-ptian origin. JMoses, Aaron, and tlioir sister were born in Eg>'pt; the name Aaron cannot be explained from the Hebrew; the daughter of Pharaoh impo.s(-d the name Moses on the child she had sa\'od from the waters of the Nile; hence it is possible that their sister's name Mary was also of Egyptian origin. This seems to become even prob- able if we consider the fact that the name Mary was not borne by any woman in the Old Testament excepting the sister of Moses. But the question why was not the name Marj' more common in the Old Testament, if it was of Hebrew origin, is answered by another question, why was the name Mary chosen by the parents of our Blessed Lady and by a mmiber of others mentioned in the New Testament, if the word was Egyptian? Though the meaning of Mary as derived from the Egyptian Mery, Meryt (cherished, beloved), is most suitable for an onlj' daughter, such a derivation is only possible, or at best barely prob- able.

Most interpreters derive the name Mary from the Hebrew, considering it either as a compoimd word or as a simple. Miryam has been regarded as composed of a noun and a pronominal suffix, or of a noun and an adjective, or again of two nouns. Gesenius was the first to consider miryam as a compound of the noun merl and the pronominal suffix Sm; this word actually occurs in II Esd., ix. 17, meaning "their rebellion". But such an exTJression is not a suitable name for a yoimg girl. Gesenius himself abandoned this ex- planation, but it was adopted by some of his followers, e. g. by J. Grimm (Das Lebcn Jesu; sec. edit., I, 414-431, Regensburg, 1890) and Schanz (Comment. uber d. Ev. d. hi. Matthiius, p. 78, Freiburg, 1879). One of the meanings assigned to the name Mary in Martianay's edition of St. Jerome's works (S. Hier. opp., t. 11, Parisiis, 1(599, 2°, cols. 109-17, 181-246, 245-270) is jr«p4 ffiXaa-aa, hilter sea. Owing to the corrupt condition in which St. Jerome found the "Onomastica" of Philo and of Origen, which he in a way re-edited, it is hard to say whether the interpre- tation "bitter sea" is really due to either of these two authorities; at any rate, it is based on the assumption that the name mirjam is composed of the Hebrew words mdr (bitter) and yam (sea). Since in Hebrew the adjective follows its substantive, the compound of the two words ought to read yam mdr; and even if the inverse order of words be admitted as possible, we have at best mdryam, not miryam. Tho.se who consider miryam as a compound word usually explain it as consisting of two nouns: mor and ySm (myrrh of the sea); mdri (cf. Dan., iv, 16) .and ydm (mistress of the sea); mdr (cf. Is., xl, 15) and yam (droj) of the sea). But these and all similar derivations of the name Mary are philologically inadmissible, and of little use to the theologian. This is notably true of the expl.anation <puTli'ov<ra ainoii, enlightening them, whether it be ba.sed on the identification of mlrj'am with me'tram (part. Hiphil of 'or with pronominal suffix of 3 plur.), or with mdr'am (part. Hiphil of ra'ah with pron. suffix of 3 plur.), or again with mdr'- eyS' Cpart. Hiphil of raah with Aramaic fern, termi- nation va'; cf. Knabenbauer, Evang. sec. Matt., pars prior, Parisiis, 1892, p. 43).

Here a word has to be added concerning the expla- nation slrlh maris, star of the sea. It is more popular than any other interpretation of the name Mary, and is dated back to St. Jerome (De nomin. hebraic, de Exod., de Matth., P. L.. XXIII, col. 789, 842). But XV.— 2934

the great Doctor of the Church knew Hebrew too well to translate the first syllable of the name miryam by star; in Is., xl., 15, lie renders the word mdr by stilla (drop), not stella (star). A Bamberg manu- script dating from the end of the ninth century reads stilla maris instead of stcUa maris. Since Varro, Quintilian, and Aulus Gellius testify that the Latin peasantry often sulistituted an e for an i, reading vea for via, nlla for riUu, spcca for spica, etc., the substi- tution of iiKirix slclld for maris stilla is easily explained. Neither an appeal to the Egvptian Minur-juma Tcf. Zeitsclir. f. kathol. Theol., IV, 1880, p. 389) nor the suggestion that St. Jerome may have regarded miryam as a contracted form of jne'or ySm (cf. Schegg, Jaco- bus der Brudcr des Herrn, Miinchen, 1882, p. 56 Anm.) will account for his supposed interpretation stella maris (star of the sea) instead of stilla maris (a drop of the sea).

It was Hiller (Onomasticum sacrum, Tubingen, 1706, pp. 170, 173, 876, 886) who first g.ave a philo- logical ex-]>lanation of miryam as a simple word. The termination 6,m is according to this WTiter a mere formative affix intensifying or amplifj-ingthe meaning of the noun. But practically mSryam had been considered as a simple noun long before Hiller. Pfiilo (De somn., II, 20; ed. Mangey, II, 677) is said to have ex-plained the word as meaning Airis (hope), deriving the word either from r&'ah (to see, to expect?) or from tndrdsh (hope); but as Philo can hardly have seriously beheved in such a hazardous derivation, he probably presented Mary the sister of Moses as a mere symbol of hope without main- taining that her very name meant hope. In Rab- binic Uterature miryam is ex-plained as meaning tnirdm (bitterness; cf. J. Lew, Neuhebraisches und chaldiiisches Worterbuch iiber die Talmudim und Midraschim, Leipzig, 1876-89, s. v. mfirtim); but such a meaning of the word is historicalh- improbable, and the derivation of miryam from mardr is grammati- cally inadmissible. Other meanings assigned to miryam viewed as a simple word are: hitter one, great sorrow (from mardr or marah: cf. Simonis, Onomas- ticum Vcteris Testament i, Halae Magdeburgicae, 1741, p. 360; Onom. Novi Test., ibid., 1762, p. 106); rebellion (from merl; cf. Gesenius, Thesaur. philol. critic. Ung. hebr. et chald. Veter. Testamenti, edit, altera, Lipsia, 183.5-58, II, p. 819b); healed one (cf. Schafer, Die Gottesmutter in der hi. Schrift, Miinster, 1887, pp. 135-144); fat one, well nourished one (from marA; cf. Schegg, Evangehum nach Matthiius, Bd. I, Miinchen, 18.56, p. 419; id.. Jacobus der Bruder des Herrn, Miinchen, 1882, p. 56; Fiirst, Hebr. und chald. Handworterb. iiber d. alte Test., Leipzig, 1857- 1861, s. V. miry.am); mistress (from marl; cf. v. Hane- berg, Geschichte d. biblisch. Offenbarung, 4th edit., Regensburg, 1876, p. 604) ; strong one, riding one (from mar.ah; cf. Bisping, Erkliirunp d. Evang. nach Matth., Miinster, 1867, p. 42); gracious or charming one (from ra'dm which word docs not have this meaning in the Old Testament; cf. v. Hancbcrg, 1. c); myrrh (from mor, though it does not appear how this word can be identified with miry.am; cf. Knabenbauer, Evang. sec. Matth., p.ars prior, Parisiis, 1892, p. 44); exalted one (from rdm; cf. Caninius. De locis S. Scripturse hebraicis comment., Antverpiae, 1600, pp. 6.3-64).

In 1906 Zorrell advanced another explanation of the name Mary, based on its derivation from the Egyptian mer or mar, to love, and the Hebrew Divine name Yam or Yahxreh (Zeitschrift fiir katholische Theologie, 1906, pp. 3.56 sqq.). Thus ex-plained the name denotes "one loving Yahweh" or "one beloved by Yahweh". We have already pointed out the difficulty implied in an Eg>'ptian origin of the name Mary. Probably it is safer to adhere to Barden- hewer's conclusions (1. c, pp. 1.54 sq.): Mapid/i and Mapla are the later forms of the Hebrew miryam;