The Seven Sayings of Jesus on the Cross: Their Circumstances and Meaning

The Seven Sayings of Jesus on the Cross

Their Circumstances and Meaning

Murray J. Harris

The Seven Sayings of Jesus on the Cross

Their Circumstances and Meaning

Copyright © 2016 Murray J. Harris. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

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paperback isbn 13: 978-1-4982-3753-6

hardcover isbn 13: 978-1-4982-3755-0

ebook isbn 13: 978-1-4982-3754-3

Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Harris, Murray J.

The seven sayings of Jesus on the cross : their circumstances and meaning / Murray J. Harris.

xvi + 108 pp. ; 23 cm. Includes bibliographical references.

isbn: 978-1-4982-3753-6 (paperback) | isbn: 978-1-4982-3755-0 (hardback)

1. Jesus Christ—Seven last words. 2. Jesus Christ. 3. Seven last words of Jesus Christ. I. Title.

BT456 H375 2016

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

To

my sister-in-law

Glenys E. Brookbanks

for whom the Cross of Christ

is a constant theme

in her speaking and writing

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Abbreviations

Chapter 1: More Remote Circumstances of the Sayings

Chapter 2: More Immediate Circumstances of the Sayings

Chapter 3: The First Saying

Chapter 4: The Second Saying

Chapter 5: The Third Saying

Chapter 6: The Fourth Saying

Chapter 7: The Fifth Saying

Chapter 8: The Sixth Saying

Chapter 9: The Seventh Saying

Chapter 10: Final Observations on the Sayings

Chapter 11: Table Listing the Sayings

Bibliography

Index of Subjects and Authors

Index of Ancient Documents

Preface

In preparation for the celebration of Easter, it has become traditional in many churches to provide a devotional treatment of the seven sayings of Jesus on the cross.

What is distinctive about the present approach is its more technical analysis of these sayings and its detailed discussion of the circumstances in which the words were spoken—some circumstances more remote (the arrest and trials of Jesus), and some more immediate (the crucifixion of Jesus and the causes of his death). These circumstances shed invaluable light on the meaning of the sayings and highlight the potency of these sayings as indicators of the heartbeat of Jesus.

The following analyses are offered in the prayerful desire that appreciation of the character of Jesus will be enriched and devotion to him deepened.

The translations of ancient documents, including biblical references, are my own, unless a particular English version is cited (see the Abbreviations).

Some material in the text and footnotes of this book is drawn from the author’s commentary The Gospel of John (Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman, 2015) in the Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament (EGGNT) series, and is used with permission.

Warm gratitude is due to Dr. D. Christopher Spinks, one of the editors at Cascade Books, and the whole team there for their skill and efficiency in preparing this book for publication.

I am grateful to three friends—David Burt, Dr. Graham Smith, Glenys Brookbanks—who carefully read my manuscript and made helpful suggestions.

With pleasure I dedicate this book to my sister-in-law, Glenys E. Brookbanks, for whom the Cross of Christ is a constant theme in her speaking and writing.

Introduction

All of us treasure the final words of those we love or admire. In ancient Judaism it was traditional for important leaders or family patriarchs to deliver farewell speeches when their time of departure was near. The aim was to encourage and challenge disciples or family members to maintain traditions established or confirmed by the departing leader or family head. For example, in Gen 47:29—49:33 we have Jacob’s final words to his sons; in 1 Chron 28:1—29:20 we hear David’s parting address to the nation and to Solomon; while The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, written about one hundred years before the Christian era, is a Jewish work with later Christian interpolations that purports to be the farewell remarks of the twelve sons of Jacob to their offspring.

Jesus’ farewell discourse, given to his disciples in the Upper Room and on the way to the Mount of Olives, is found in John 13:31—16:33 (or 17:26).¹ It differs from all other farewell speeches in that along with reminders of his imminent departure,² Jesus gives his followers repeated assurances of his coming back.³ This return of Jesus would be through his resurrection, through the coming of his Holy Spirit, and through his second Advent. Another difference is that Jesus later spoke words of final farewell after his resurrection and just prior to his ascension (viz. Matt 28:18–20).

But Jesus’ actual final words during his earthly life were not, in fact, collected in one place to form a farewell address. They are scattered in seven different places, three in the Gospel of Luke, one in Matthew and Mark, and three in John. (This excludes the words of Jesus spoken after his resurrection as recorded in Acts 1:4–5, 7–8). These seven pre-death sayings do not form a unity but address seven very different situations. They are not remotely like any other final words ever recorded as being spoken by a leader. They are exceptionally brief and poignant; they are not intimate words of farewell spoken to all his disciples; and they are uttered in the midst of prolonged death throes.

An examination of the meaning of these seven sayings forms the essence (Part Two) of the present work. But first, as is appropriate, attention will be given to the circumstances surrounding the utterance of these sayings (Part One).

Abbreviations

References to BDAG and LSJ are by page number and quadrant on the page, a indicating the upper half and b the lower half of the left-hand column, and c and d the upper and lower halves of the right-hand column.

ABD The Anchor Bible Dictionary. 6 vols. Edited by David Noel Freedman. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

BDAG Walter Bauer, Frederick W. Danker, W. F. Arndt, and F. W. Gingrich. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

BDF Frederich Blass and Albert Debrunner. A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Translated and revised by Robert W. Funk. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961.

DJG Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels. Edited by Joel B. Green, Scot McKnight, and I. Howard Marshall. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1992.

EVV English Versions of the Bible

GNB Good News Bible (1976)

HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible (1999)

JB Jerusalem Bible (1976)

KJV King James Version (= Authorized Version) (1611)

LN James P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains. Vol. 1. Introduction and Domains. New York: United Bible Societies, 1988.

LSJ Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, and Henry Stuart Jones. A Greek-English Lexicon. 9th ed. Oxford: Clarendon, 1996.

LXX Septuagint (= Greek Old Testament).

MT Masoretic Text

NASB² New American Standard Bible (1999)

NEB New English Bible (1970)

NIV1 New International Version (1983)

NIV2 New International Version (2011)

NJB New Jerusalem Bible (1985)

NLT New Living Translation of the Bible (1996)

NRSV New Revised Standard Version (1990)

NT New Testament

OT Old Testament

REB Revised English Bible (1990)

RV Revised Version (NT 1881)

SB Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck. Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch. 4 vols. Munich: Beck, 1922–28.

s.v. sub voce (Latin), under the word

TCNT Twentieth Century New Testament (1904)

TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. 10 vols. Edited by Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich. Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964–1976.

UBS4 The Greek New Testament. 4th ed. Edited by Barbara Aland, Kurt Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, and Bruce M. Metzger. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1993.

1. R. E. Brown identifies thirteen characteristics of farewell speeches, all of which appear in Jesus’ final discourse as recorded by John (Gospel of John [xiii-xxi],

598

–

600

).

2. John

13

:

33

,

36

;

14

:

2

–

4

,

12

,

19

,

25

,

27

–

30

;

16

:

4

–

7

,

16

a,

17–19

,

28

.

3. John

14

:

3

,

18

,

28

;

16

:

16

b,

22

.

Part One

The Circumstances of the Sayings

1

More Remote Circumstances of the Sayings

A. The Arrest of Jesus

After Jesus completed his farewell discourse (John 13:31—16:33) and prayed for his disciples and all believers (John 17:6–26), he and his disciples left the city of Jerusalem, crossed the Kidron Valley, and entered the garden that was called Gethsemane (the place of the oil-press) on the Mount of Olives. This secluded garden was a favorite retreat for them all (Luke 22:39; John 18:1–2).

There Jesus prayed with such intense anguish as he anticipated his imminent suffering that would end in death that his sweat dripped like