Luke 23:27-28

23:27 A great number of the people followed him, among them women ¹  who were mourning ²  and wailing for him. 23:28 But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, ³  do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves ⁴  and for your children.

Luke 23:48-49

23:48 And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. ⁵  23:49 And all those who knew Jesus ⁶  stood at a distance, and the women who had followed him from Galilee saw ⁷  these things.

John 19:25-27

19:25 Now standing beside Jesus’ cross were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ⁸  19:26 So when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, ⁹  look, here is your son!” 19:27 He then said to his disciple, “Look, here is your mother!” From that very time ¹⁰  the disciple took her into his own home.

[23:27]  ¹ sn The background of these women is disputed. Are they “official” mourners of Jesus’ death, appointed by custom to mourn death? If so, the mourning here would be more pro forma. However, the text seems to treat the mourning as sincere, so their tears and lamenting would have been genuine.

[23:27]  ² tn Or “who were beating their breasts,” implying a ritualized form of mourning employed in Jewish funerals. See the note on the term “women” earlier in this verse.

[23:28]  ³ sn The title Daughters of Jerusalem portrays these women mourning as representatives of the nation.

[23:28]  ⁴ sn Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves. Judgment now comes on the nation (see Luke 19:41-44) for this judgment of Jesus. Ironically, they mourn the wrong person – they should be mourning for themselves.

[23:48]  ⁵ sn Some apparently regretted what had taken place. Beating their breasts was a sign of lamentation.

[23:49]  ⁶ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:49]  ⁷ tn Technically the participle ὁρῶσαι (Jorwsai) modifies only γυναῖκες (gunaike") since both are feminine plural nominative, although many modern translations refer this as well to the group of those who knew Jesus mentioned in the first part of the verse. These events had a wide array of witnesses.

[19:25]  ⁸ sn Several women are mentioned, but it is not easy to determine how many. It is not clear whether his mother’s sister and Mary the wife of Clopas are to be understood as the same individual (in which case only three women are mentioned: Jesus’ mother, her sister Mary, and Mary Magdalene) or as two different individuals (in which case four women are mentioned: Jesus’ mother, her sister, Mary Clopas’ wife, and Mary Magdalene). It is impossible to be certain, but when John’s account is compared to the synoptics it is easier to reconcile the accounts if four women were present than if there were only three. It also seems that if there were four women present, this would have been seen by the author to be in juxtaposition to the four soldiers present who performed the crucifixion, and this may explain the transition from the one incident in 23-24 to the other in 25-27. Finally, if only three were present, this would mean that both Jesus’ mother and her sister were named Mary, and this is highly improbable in a Jewish family of that time. If there were four women present, the name of the second, the sister of Jesus’ mother, is not mentioned. It is entirely possible that the sister of Jesus’ mother mentioned here is to be identified with the woman named Salome mentioned in Mark 15:40 and also with the woman identified as “the mother of the sons of Zebedee” mentioned in Matt 27:56. If so, and if John the Apostle is to be identified as the beloved disciple, then the reason for the omission of the second woman’s name becomes clear; she would have been John’s own mother, and he consistently omitted direct reference to himself or his brother James or any other members of his family in the Fourth Gospel.

[19:26]  ⁹ sn The term Woman is Jesus’ normal, polite way of addressing women (Matt 15:28, Luke 13:12; John 4:21; 8:10; 19:26; 20:15; see BDAG 208-9 s.v. γυνή 1). But it is unusual for a son to address his mother with this term. The custom in both Hebrew (or Aramaic) and Greek would be for a son to use a qualifying adjective or title. Is there significance in Jesus’ use here? Jesus probably used the term here to help establish Mary and the beloved disciple in a new “mother-son” relationship. Someone would soon need to provide for Mary since Jesus, her oldest son, would no longer be alive. By using this term Jesus distanced himself from Mary so the beloved disciple could take his place as her earthly son (cf. John 2:4). See D. A. Carson, John, 617-18, for discussion about symbolic interpretations of this relationship between Mary and the beloved disciple.

[19:27]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “from that very hour.”