Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.
Ver. 27. The disciple took her, &c.] A precious depositum; trust the house was the better she abode in; yet dare we not deify her, as the Papists; as neither will we vilify her, as the author of the Female Glory basely slanders some of us, that we rudely call her Moll, God's maid. Os durum! Horsh speech! Our parents, saith the heathen, are our household gods, θεοι εφεστιοι. (Hierocles.) Honour them we must both in word and deed. That our Saviour here calls her woman, and not mother, was either because he would not add to her grief, who was now pierced to the soul with that sword Simeon spake of,Luke 2:35; or, lest he should create her further trouble, if she had been known to be his mother; or, for that, being now in his last work, and ready way to heaven, he knew none after the flesh. Thomas Watt, martyr, spake thus at his death to his wife and six children: Wife and my good children, I must now depart from you; therefore henceforth know I you no more, &c. But whereas Christ commends the care of his mother to his beloved disciple, with, Behold thy mother, the Samians used the like speech, when to the richer of the citizens, the mothers of those who died in the wars were given to be maintained by them, Σοι ταυτην διδωμι την μητερα .