, here in the Islamic countries we take our moms everywhere, even if she wants to visit her neighbor.
However, JESUS in John 2:4 called her āWomanā, and not any fancy title!
The title āWomanā is not a sign of disrespect, it is the opposite ā a title of dignity. It is a formal mode of speech equivalent to the English titles, āLadyā or āMadam.ā
The Protestant commentator William Barclay writes:
āThe word Woman (gynai) is also misleading. It sounds to us very rough and abrupt. But it is the same word as Jesus used on the Cross to address Mary as he left her to the care of John (John 19:26). In Homer it is the title by which Odysseus addresses Penelope, his well-loved wife. It is the title by which Augustus, the Roman Emperor, addressed Cleopatara, the famous Egyptian queen. So far from being a rough and discourteous way of address, it was a title of respect. We have no way of speaking in English which exactly renders it; but it is better to translate it Lady which gives at least the courtesy in itā (The Gospel of John, revised edition, vol. 1, p. 98).
Similarly, the Protestant Expositorās Bible Commentary, published by Zondervan, states:
Jesusā reply to Mary was not so abrupt as it seems. āWomanā (gynai) was a polite form of address. Jesus used it when he spoke to his mother from the cross (19:26) and also when he spoke to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection (20:15)" (vol. 9, p. 42).
Even the Fundamentalist Wycliff Bible Commentary put out by Moody Press acknowledges in its comment on this verse,
āIn his reply, the use of āWomanā does not involve disrespect (cf. 19:26)ā (p. 1076).
The fact it is not a title of disrespect should be obvious from the fact that Jesus, as an obedient Son who fulfilled the Torah perfectly, would never have spoken irreverently to his mother. His perfect fulfillment of the Torah includes a perfect fulfillment of the command, āHonor your father and mother,ā which in the literal Hebrew is āGlorify your father and mother.ā
This is why the
corban custom was so wrong ā because it left oneās parents scrounging for food and money and thus publicly humiliated, violating the command to glorify your father and mother by seeing that they are not publicly shamed by being reduced to begging. To publicly speak irreverently of his mother is something that Jesus would never have been able to countenance. Actually, the way Jesus is using the term ā at the two key junctures in Johnās Gospel where Mary appears ā is symbolic and emblematic of her role in redemptive history. Whereas Eve was the First Woman, Mary is the Second Woman, just as Adam was the First Man and Jesus was the Second Man (1 Cor. 15:47).
But hereās one of my daily devotion prayers.
