Читать книгу The Seven Sayings of Jesus on the Cross - Murray J. Harris - Страница 6

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).