Elizabeth Meaning in the Bible

Elizabeth is the Greek Elisabet, from the Hebrew Elisheva (אֱלִישֶׁבַע): El, 'God,' with sheva, 'oath' or 'seven,' the number of covenant completeness. 'God is my oath' is the standard rendering. The name has an Old Testament bearer too — Elisheba, the wife of Aaron and mother of the priestly line (Exodus 6:23), which makes Luke's choice of it for another priest's wife look deliberate.

Luke introduces her and Zacharias as 'both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless' (Luke 1:6) — and immediately notes they had no child and were 'well stricken in years.' The pairing is pointed: the Gospel opens by denying that childlessness signals divine disfavour.

Her decisive moment is administrative. At the circumcision the neighbours assume the boy will be named Zacharias after his father, and Elizabeth overrules them flatly: 'Not so; but he shall be called John' (Luke 1:60). Her mute husband confirms it in writing, and his speech returns in the same hour.

She is also the first person recorded as recognising Christ — the babe leaping in her womb at Mary's greeting, and her cry 'blessed art thou among women' (Luke 1:42). Elizabeth has never left the English top 30 since records began, sustains an unmatched set of nicknames (Eliza, Beth, Betsy, Libby, Elsie, Bess, Lisbeth), and is the rare name that is both formal and endlessly informal.