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BY: Ben Witherington
Why did Jesus always call the Blessed Virgin Mary "lady" and not "mother"?
This is an excellent question (see John 2-19). It is my view that Jesus calls his mother "woman" (not lady) rather than "mother" because he is disengaging from her parental authority. As a text like Luke 2:41-52 shows, Jesus had to follow the dictates of his heavenly father rather than his earthly mother if they did not correspond.
I have been considering getting a tattoo. Is there anything in the Bible that I should consider before taking this step?
You are thinking of Leviticus 19:28. Notice that this text first says that it is wrong to make gashes in one's flesh for the dead. We are talking about cutting or marking the flesh as part of some religious ritual (see for example the gashing of the wrists in 1 Kings 18:28). This text is probably not a general prohibition against tattooing, since that act in antiquity always had specific religious associations.
Still, it is fair to say that if you choose to get a tattoo, it should not involve an inscription that is inappropriate for a believer to display.
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