Commentaria in Exodum
That this is the true etymology of the name Maria, namely that it signifies lady, is plain first from this, that Epiphanius so interprets the name Maria, in his sermon On the Praises of the Virgin; Damascene, book 4 On the Faith, chapter 15; Eucherius, book 2 of his Instructions; Chrysologus, sermon 146; Bede on chapter 1 of Luke; secondly, because R. Haccados, a most famous teacher of the Hebrews before Christ for learning and holiness, foretold that the mother of the Messias (namely the Blessed Mary) should be called lady; thirdly, because the liturgies of St. James, Basil and Chrysostom, alluding to the etymology of Maria, call her despoina hēmōn, that is, our Lady; fourthly, because all Christians in every tongue address the Blessed Virgin as by her proper name, Our Lady, Notre Dame, Nuestra Señora, Onse Lieve Vrouwe. For she is the mother of Christ, who is the firstborn, and lord of every creature: whence R. Haccados calls her the first of creatures, and the first man.
Wherefore Victorinus wrongly interprets Mary as wretched, and Luther most ignorantly interprets Maria as a little drop of water. See Canisius at the beginning of his Marialis, and Matthew Galenus in his…
PROPHETESS,—first, because God spoke with her, and laid open secrets to her as to Moses, as appears from Num. chap. 12, verse 2.
Secondly, “prophetess,” that is, teacher, mistress; thirdly, “prophetess,” that is, precentor. See what was said on 1 Corinthians, chapter 14, at the beginning.
SISTER OF AARON,—and consequently of Moses; yet she is called the sister of Aaron, not of Moses, because Aaron was older than Moses, and born next after Mary.
Hence Gregory of Nyssa, in his book On Virginity, chapter 6, teaches that this Mary was a virgin: for if she had been married, she would have been named from her husband, not from her brother, and would have been called not the sister of Aaron, but the wife of such and such a husband. Secondly, because Scripture nowhere mentions her husband or children. The same is taught by St. Ambrose, Exhortation to Virgins, and Apponius, book 6 on the Canticles. This Mary therefore was a type of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and as she sang: “Let us sing to the Lord,” so the Blessed Virgin sang: “My soul doth magnify the Lord.” Josephus however holds the contrary, and says that this Mary was married to Hur, who is mentioned in Exodus 24:14. But Josephus, like the Jews in the Old Testament, with few exceptions, knew not virgins and virginity.
AND ALL THE WOMEN WENT FORTH AFTER HER WITH TIMBRELS AND WITH DANCES,—with pious dancings to the beat of the timbrel; for this is what choruses are. For a chorus is a multitude of persons singing or dancing, and is derived from chara, that is, joy, says Plato, book 2 On the Laws; or, as Festus says, from corona. That this was the custom among the Hebrews, for girls in singing the praises of God to sing psalms and lead dances, is plain from Psalm 67, verse 26: “The princes went before joined with singers, in the midst of young damsels (in Hebrew, virgins) playing on timbrels.” So in 1 Esdras chapter 2, verse 65, among the Hebrews returning from Babylon there were two hundred singing men and singing women, namely to lighten the tedium of the journey, and to cheer the spirits of the returning captives. So Solomon: “I made me singing men and singing women,” Eccles. chap. 2, verse 8. So the Lacedemonians used a threefold dance of choruses, by the institution of Lycurgus. This dance consisted of a threefold chorus, of old men, boys, and youths. The first song was that of the old men: “We were once brave young men”; the second, of the boys: “We shall one day be better”; the third, of the youths: “But we are so now, or try us if you will.” Plutarch is witness, in his treatise On Praising Oneself.
Moreover, against wanton dances and revels see St. Basil, sermon On Drunkenness and Luxury; Chrysostom, homily 49 on Matthew; Ambrose, book 3 On Virgins; Augustine on Psalm 31. Aptly did one say: “A dance is a circle whose centre is the devil, and whose circumference is all his angels.” Hence the Council of Laodicea, about the year of our Lord 364, canon 55, thus ordains: “Christians when going to weddings ought neither to leap nor to dance, but to sup or dine chastely, as becomes Christians.”
Note here how and why Mary and her companions went forth: not to wanton dances, not to taverns, but to modest and pious choruses and the praises of God. Let virgins hear the golden teaching of St. Chrysostom, in the sermon That regular women should not dwell with men, at the end of volume 5: “When a virgin betakes herself into public, she ought to bear before her a specimen of all philosophy, and to turn all to amazement. As an Angel, if he now descended from heaven, and as some Cherub, if he appeared on earth, would turn all men to amazement: so a virgin ought to bring all who see her to admiration and amazement at her holiness.” If a virgin ought thus to go out and walk abroad, with what modesty, with what gravity of manners, with what chastity ought an Ecclesiastic, and especially a Religious, to walk, like an angel fallen from heaven!
WITH TIMBRELS.—Calvin here reckons the timbrels, the organs and other musical instruments among the legal ceremonies of the Old Testament, which Christ therefore abolished, as repugnant to the simplicity of the Gospel. But these timbrels and choruses of Mary and the Hebrews were before the ceremonial law was given by God; and if it was then lawful to use them, why not also now? Secondly, if instruments of song belong to the ceremonial law, then by the same right song itself and psalmody, in which the Calvinists so greatly glory, will belong to the same.
Thirdly, let us grant that these were ceremonial; the Church could take to herself the same ceremony serving her own uses, as she has taken to herself the ornaments of pontiffs and priests, the use of lights, temples, oblations, and other things which were ceremonial in the old law, and that for the decorum and majesty of the sacred rites of the new law. So she revived certain judicial precepts of the old law, and enacted them in the new: for our temples, in which those tremendous mysteries are performed, are more than those old ones worthy of all decoration, all jubilation and harmony, unless Calvin wishes to appear a rustic in the temple, and a courtier at home, and prefers to use music for his own pleasure rather than for the praise of God.
Tropologically, the timbrel, which is made of hide, signifies the mortification of the flesh, without which no soul can show herself an approved singer to God; hence it is said: “Praise ye God with timbrel and choir”; for they play the timbrel to God who chastise the flesh and beat it down with St. Paul. So Origen, Rupert, and St. Ambrose To Virgins.
21. TO WHOM SHE BEGAN THE SONG, SAYING: LET US SING TO THE LORD, FOR HE IS GLORIOUSLY MAGNIFIED.—The Hebrew is vattaan lahem, that is, and she answered them, namely Moses and the other men (for lahem is masculine) who led the song. So Vatablus and the Hebrews. Whence Philo, in his book On Agriculture, thinks there were here two choruses, one of men and the other of women, standing opposite and answering one another with alternate songs; and Oleaster thinks that the men, Moses leading, sang each verse of the canticle, and then Mary with the women answered at each verse, singing in response and repeating this refrain: “Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously magnified, the horse and his rider he hath thrown into the sea.” For this alone is here assigned to Mary and the women; and this was done also in other canticles from time to time, as in Psalm 135 the chorus sang: “Give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever,” and then went on with the other verses; but the assembly at each verse answered and repeated: “For his mercy endureth for ever.” So also Genebrard on Psalm 67.
This opinion is very probable: for the masculine lahem favours it, and the verb taan, which properly signifies to answer, to sing responsively or alternately; as if to say: The women answered and sang in response to the men who led, Mary leading, as it were, and beginning the same song which Moses and the Hebrews had sung before: for if the women had formed a chorus apart from the men and sung, they would not have repeated the song of the men, but would have sung another that occurred to them.
Others however think that Mary with the women, apart from the men (for this the words “went forth” seem to hint), and after the men, sang that same whole song from beginning to end which the men had sung: so that Mary first learned it, either from Moses or from the Holy Ghost (for she was a prophetess), and she leading, the rest sang in response, as is wont to be done in a choir. This opinion also is probable.
22. AND MOSES BROUGHT ISRAEL FROM THE RED SEA.—“Brought,” in Hebrew tassa, that is, caused to set out, moved, led; “Israel,” that is, the people of Israel, the children of Israel, namely the descendants of Jacob. Our Interpreter by the word “brought” indicates the provident care of Moses for the Hebrews, as of a mother cherishing her sons in her bosom; concerning which see Num. 11:12.
23. AND THEY WENT INTO THE DESERT OF SUR,—in which the angel found Agar the handmaid of Abraham wandering, between Cades and Barad, Gen. 16:7. So St. Jerome. And hence perhaps, namely from Agar, this desert is here called Agra by the Chaldee; this desert of Sur is also called by another name Etham, Num. 33:8, of which I spoke in the preceding chapter, verse 29.
AND THEY CAME TO MARA.—This is the fifth station in the desert, which was called Mara from the bitterness of the waters, which were marim, that is, bitter. Hence it is plain that this place is called Mara by anticipation: for it was not called Mara when the Hebrews first came there; but was named Mara by Moses, after he had tasted its bitter waters, as is said here.