Sayings of Jesus on the cross

[3][4] Since the 16th century, these sayings have been widely used in sermons on Good Friday, and entire books have been written on theological analysis of them.

[3] The sayings form part of the Stations of the Cross, a Christian meditation that is often used during Lent, Holy Week and Good Friday.

[10] James Dunn considers the seven sayings weakly rooted in tradition and sees them as a part of the elaborations in the diverse retellings of Jesus' final hours.

[11] Leslie Houlden suggests that Luke may have deliberately excluded this saying from his gospel because it did not fit in with the model of Jesus he was presenting.

[3][6] Michael Licona suggests that John has redacted Jesus' authentic statements as recorded in Matthew, Mark and Luke.

[1] It is theologically interpreted as Jesus' prayer for forgiveness for the Roman soldiers who were crucifying him and all others who were involved in his crucifixion.

[29][30] The Hebrew counterpart to this word, עזב‎ (zb), is seen in the second line of the Old Testament's Psalm 22, which the saying appears to quote.

[31] In the next verse, in both accounts, some who hear Jesus' cry imagine that he is calling for help from Elijah (Ēlīyā in Aramaic).

In Hebrew, the saying would be "אֵלִי אֵלִי, לָמָה עֲזַבְתָּנִי‎" (ēlī ēlī, lāmā 'azabtānī in Biblical Hebrew, eli eli lama azavtani in Modern Hebrew pronunciation), while the Syriac-Aramaic phrase according to the Peshitta would be Syriac: ܐܝܠܝ ܐܝܠܝ ܠܡܐ ܫܒܩܬܢܝ, romanized: ʔēl ʔēl lǝmā šǝḇaqtān (Matthew 27:46) or Syriac: ܐܠܗܝ ܐܠܗܝ ܠܡܢܐ ܫܒܩܬܢܝ, romanized: ʾalāh ʾalāh lǝmānā šǝḇaqtān (Mark 15:34).

[1] Only John records this saying, but all four gospels relate that Jesus was offered a drink of sour wine (possibly posca).

This may have been intended as symbolically significant, as hyssop branches are often mentioned in the Old Testament in the context of the use of sacrificial blood for ritual purification.

"[41] The utterance after consuming the beverage and immediately before death is mentioned, but not explicitly quoted, in Mark 15:37 and Matthew 27:50 (both of which state that Jesus "cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost").

And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.From Psalm 31:5, this saying, which is an announcement and not a request, is traditionally called "The Word of Reunion" and is theologically interpreted as the proclamation of Jesus joining God the Father in Heaven.

[43][44][45] These include Philip the Apostle (died AD 80),[46] Basil the Great (AD 379),[45][47] Charlemagne (died 814),[45][48] Ansgar (865),[49] Thomas Becket (1170),[45][50] Jan Hus (1415),[45][51][44][52] Christopher Columbus (1506),[45][53] Ludovica Albertoni (1533),[54] Martin Luther (1546),[55] George Wishart (1546),[56] Lady Jane Grey (1554),[44][57] her father Henry, Duke of Suffolk (1555),[45] Thomas of Villanova (1555),[58] Mary, Queen of Scots (1587),[45][44][59] Aloysius Gonzaga (1591),[60] Torquato Tasso (1595),[44] Turibius of Mogrovejo (1606),[61] John Bruen (1625),[62] George Herbert (1633),[45][63] Covenanters including Hugh Mackail (1666) and James Renwick (1688),[45] and Christian Friedrich Schwarz (1798).