Bible Strands
John 19:26
When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, here is your son.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus speaks to His mother while standing at the cross, with the disciple He loved standing nearby. This occurs during the crucifixion narrative, immediately following the account of the women watching from a distance.
The words — ἰδὼν (idōn) means "having seen," showing Jesus deliberately observed His mother and the disciple before speaking. οὖν (oun) translates to "therefore," marking the logical transition from His observation to His spoken provision.
The thread — This moment echoes Jesus’s earlier address to His mother as "Woman" in John 2:4, where He also establishes a new relational boundary. The "disciple whom He loved" is later identified in John 21:24 as the one who testifies to and records these events.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to recognize Jesus’s deliberate provision for His mother’s care amid His own suffering. It demands that believers follow the disciple’s example by accepting and sustaining those entrusted to them.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!
Cross-references
- John 21:24 This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who has written them down. And we know that his testimony is true.
- John 2:4 “Woman, what is that to you and to Me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
- John 13:23 One of His disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was reclining at His side.
- John 20:2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,” she said, “and we do not know where they have put Him!”
- John 21:7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment (for he had removed it) and jumped into the sea.
- John 21:20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them. He was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper to ask, “Lord, who is going to betray You?”