Rhoda meaning

Meaning

Rose-Bush

Etymology

From the noun ροδη (rhode), rose-bush.

Related names

• Via ροδη (rhode): Rhodes

Rhoda was a servant girl who worked for Mary the mother of John Mark. She famously refrained from opening the door for the calling Peter, after the angel of the Lord had freed him from prison (Acts 12:13). When she ran in to say that Peter's at the door, the others snarled at her and said she was mad. It may be that Rhoda was under orders not to open the door for anyone because the believers were afraid for persecution.

Greek mythology explained that the similarly named island of Rhodes had come about from a union of Helios, the sun god, and a nymph named Ροδος (Rhodos), which is the same as the name of the island, or Ροδη (Rhode), which is the same as the name of the servant girl. This suggests that Rhoda personifies something of the legacy of Rhodes, as it helped Peter find safety (and see our article on Pyrrhus for a quick look at the relation between "history" and the Bible).

The name Rhoda is identical to the common Greek noun ροδη (rhode), meaning rose-tree or rose-bush. The word for a single rose is ροδον (rhodon), from whence comes our word rhododendron, literally meaning rose-tree, and the name of the color red. It may be that for the Greeks the name Ροδος (Rhodes, the island) sounded like Rose Place (although the name actually may come from the Phoenician word for snake, says the Encyclopedia Britannica; but see our article on Rhodes for a look at that).

Some related words are ροδιτης (rhodites), meaning rose-flavored; ροδοκροος (rhodokroos), meaning rose-colored; and the delightfully imaginative word ροδοκολπος (rodokolpos), meaning rosy-bosomed.

The name Rosa means Rose-Bush or Rose-Tree. In our article on the name Rhodes we consider that this name may reflect the many centers of "wisdom" for which the island was famous (and see 1 Corinthians 1:20-21 for why Luke would depict Rhoda as a mere slave girl, who doesn't know wisdom if it came banging on the door).