Christian Pure

Mabel Is Not in the Bible — It Means “Lovable”

Christian Pure Team

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Summary

  • Mabel is not in the Bible. It is the medieval form of the Latin Amabilis, meaning “lovable”; Saint Amabilis was a fifth-century priest at Riom in central France.
  • Amabel and Mabel were common through the Middle Ages, went quiet after the fifteenth century, and returned in the nineteenth.
  • Scripture almost never calls anyone lovable. It calls people loved — a decision in someone else rather than a quality in us.
  • “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). The love comes before the improvement, not after it.
  • At the Jordan the Father’s delight precedes the ministry: “You are my Son, whom I love” (Mark 1:11), spoken before anything had been achieved.

Mabel is not in the Bible. It is the medieval form of the Latin Amabilis, and Amabilis means lovable. Which is a beautiful thing to be called and a heavy thing to carry, dear friends, because lovable is a judgement — and most of us have spent some part of our lives quietly failing the test. What does the name Mabel mean? Lovable. Amabilis was a Roman cognomen with that plain meaning, and it belonged to Saint Amabilis, a fifth-century…

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Bibliography (Click to show)

Sources: Behind the Name entries for Mabel and Amabilis (medieval form of Latin Amabilis, “lovable”; Saint Amabilis of Riom); Scripture quotations from the NIV via BibleGateway (Romans 5:8; Mark 1:11; 1 John 3:1).

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