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JOHN 19:26 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
John 19:25John 19:27
“When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!”
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, 'Woman, behold, your son!' — Jesus addresses his mother as "Woman" (gyne, used also at Cana 2:4), maintaining distance even in love—she is woman of humanity, not merely his mother. The designation of the beloved disciple (traditionally John) as present and beloved establishes him as true family. Jesus' directive to his mother—"behold your son"—creates a new kinship based not on biology but on discipleship.

Church Fathers on John 19:26

While the soldiers were doing their cruel work, He was thinking anxiously of His mother: These things therefore the soldiers did. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.

Theophylact · 11th century

Mary the mother of our Lord stood before the cross of her Son. None of the Evangelists hath told me this except John. The others have related how that at our Lord’s Passion the earth quaked, the heaven was overspread with darkness, the sun fled, the thief was taken into paradise after confession. John hath told us, what the others have not, how that from the cross whereon He hung, He called to His mother. He thought it a greater thing to show Him victorious over punishment,…

Ambrose · 4th century

The Mary which in Mark and Matthew is called the mother of James and Joses was the wife of Alpheus, and sister of Mary the mother of our Lord: which Mary John here designates of Cleophas, either from her father, or family, or for some other reason. She need not be thought a different person, because she is called in one place Mary the mother of James the less, and here Mary of Cleophas, for it is customary in Scripture to give different names to the same person.

Jerome · 4th century
Read all 12 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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John 19:26 — Community Reflections | HolyStudy