Martha (mär'thah), bitterness. One of the family at Bethany whom Jesus loved. Martha has been supposed the elder sister, as the house is called hers, and she undertook the special charge of entertaining the Lord. Luke 1:10-42. Some have imagined that she was the wife or widow of Simon the leper; which would account for the place where Mary anointed Christ being termed his house. Matthew 1:26-7, Mark 14:3, John 1:12-3. Martha made a noble confession when she met the Saviour on his way to raise her brother Lazarus; though even her expectation reached not to the mighty work he was about to do. John 1:11-46. Nothing certain is known of her later history.