Matthew Henry on John 19:19-30
Here are some remarkable circumstances of Christ's dying more fully related than before, which those will take special notice of who covet to know Christ and him crucified.
I. The title set up over his head. Observe,
1. The inscription itself which Pilate wrote, and ordered to be fixed to the top of the cross, declaring the cause for which he was crucified, Joh 19:19. Matthew called it, aitia - the accusation; Mark and Luke called it epigraphē - the inscription; John calls it by the proper Latin name, titlos - the title: and it was this, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, Pilate intended this for his reproach, that he, being Jesus of Nazareth, should pretend to be king of the Jews, an…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on John 19:25
Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary, wife of Cleophas--This should be read, as in the Margin, "Clopas," the same as "Alpheus" (Mat 10:3). The "Cleopas" of Luk 24:18 was a different person.
Adam Clarke on John 19:25
Mary the wife of Cleophas - She is said, in Mat 27:56, (see the note there), and Mar 15:40, to have been the mother of James the Less, and of Joses; and this James her son is said, in Mat 10:3, to have been the son of Alpheus; hence it seems that Alpheus and Cleopas were the same person. To which may be added, that Hegesippus is quoted by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. l. iii. c. 11, as saying that Cleopas was the brother of Joseph, the husband of the virgin. Theophylact says that Cleopas, (brother of Joseph, the husband of the virgin), having died childless, his brother Joseph married his widow, by whom he had four sons, called by the evangelists the brothers of our Lord, and two daughters, the one…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Gill on John 19:25
Now there stood by the cross of Jesus,.... So near as not only to see him, but to hear him speak:
his mother; the mother of Jesus, Mary; which showed her affection to Christ, and her constancy in abiding by him to the last; though it must be a cutting sight, and now was fulfilled Simeon's prophecy, Luke 2:35 to see her son in such agonies and sorrow, and jeered and insulted by the worst of men; and though she herself was exposed to danger, and liable to be abused by the outrageous multitude; and it also showed that she stood in need, as others, of a crucified Saviour; so far was she from being a co-partner with him in making satisfaction for sin, as the Papists wickedly say:
and his mother…
