John 2:4 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Woman, what have I to do with thee?— The compellation with which Jesus addressed his mother, sounds harsh in our language, because with us it is never used, where respect is meant to be shewn. Nevertheless, woman anciently was a term of honour, being used in speaking to persons of the first quality, as wefind in the politest writers of antiquity. Besides, it was that by which our Lord addressed her at a time when his respect and tenderness for her cannot be called in question,—ch. John 19:26. The clause which in our translation runs, What have I to do with thee, might be rendered so as to have a milder aspect. What hast thou to do with me? For the original words τι εμοι και σοι, are evidently used in this sense, 2 Samuel 19:22.Mark 5:7. What hast thou to do with me? Mine hour is not yet come. "The season of my public ministry in this country is not yet come. Before I work miracles in Galilee, I must go into Judea and preach, where the Baptist, my forerunner, has been preparing my way." Some translate the latter clause interrogatively, Is not mine hour come? "The season of my public ministry, at which period your authority over me ceases?" Upon the whole, our Lord's answer to his mother, though perhaps intended as a slight rebuke, was not in the least disrespectful; as is evident likewise from the temper with which she received it, and from her desiring the servants to do whatever he ordered them. The generality of writers upon this subject have observed, with great justice I have no doubt, that this rebuke was intended by our Lord, in his prophetic spirit, as a standing testimony against that idolatry, which he foresaw after-ages would superstitiously bestow upon his mother, even to the robbing him of the right and honour of his alone Mediatorship and intercession.