Seven last words
The seven last words of Jesus Christ are narrated in the four gospels of the New Testament . Christianity attaches special importance to these sentences uttered during the crucifixion. The Catholic Church officially calls these sayings the Seven Last Words and places them in a chronological sequence parallel to the Passion story . Another name is Seven Words of the Cross .
Traditional order
- "Father, forgive them because they don't know what they are doing." ( Lk 23.34 EU )
- "Amen, I say to you: Today you will be with me in paradise." ( Lk 23.43 EU )
- "Woman, behold your son!" And: "Behold your mother!" ( Joh 19,26-27 EU )
- "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" ( Mk 15.34 EU ; Matt 27.46 EU ; Psalm 22.2 EU )
- "I am thirsty." ( Joh 19,28 EU )
- "It is finished." ( Joh 19,30 EU )
- "Father, in your hands I put my spirit." ( Lk 23.46 EU )
interpretation
Traditional exegesis reads these words as the last message of Jesus, with which he interprets his death on the cross and gives his disciples last instructions.
The historical-critical exegesis assumes that these sayings are not historical protocols, since relatives were not granted access to the crucifixion. Rather, they reflect the faith of the early Church - in theological terms: the risen Christ who reveals himself through the Holy Spirit ( Jn 16 : 13-14 EU ).
Gospels of Mark and Matthew
These words are in the Greek text of the Gospels as a transcription of the Aramaic translation of the 22nd Psalm ( Ps 22,2 EU ) in the Gospel of Mark with ελωι ελωι λαμμα σαβαχθανι eloi eloi lamma sabachthani or in the Gospel of Matthew with ηλι ηλι λαμα σαβαχθανι eli eli lama sabachthani (actually אֵלִי אֵלִי לְמָה שְׁבַקְתָּנִי 'eli,' eli, lama schewaktani or ܐܹܝܠ ܐܹܝܠ ܠܡܵܢܵܐ ܫܒܲܩܬܵܢܝ 'il' il, lmana schwaktan , in Hebrew the psalm אֵלִ֣י אֵ֭לִי לָמָ֣ה עֲזַבְתָּ֑נִי original 'eli,' eli, lama 'asawtani in which Luther Bible: Eli, Eli, lama asabtani ), in which Jesus takes up the cry of a servant abandoned by God or speaks the psalm as a prayer for death. On the one hand, this saying is understood as an expression of Jesus' desperation, who sees himself abandoned by God: not only abandoned by his disciples, but also mocked by the crowd and his fellow sufferers. On the other hand, this exclamation is valid as evidence of the complete - physical, mental as well as spiritual - suffering that Jesus took upon himself. However, the psalm later expresses the deep trust in God of the apparently abandoned and consequently also the deep trust of Jesus himself in his greatest despair. The Church sees this also as the fulfillment of the assumption of sins of the innocent servant of God described in Isa 53 EU . Some interpretations instead of “being abandoned by God” emphasize “being separated from the Father”, meaning that Jesus was separated from his Father at that moment and that this was his real suffering.
Gospel of Luke
This verse is missing in the oldest surviving versions of the Gospel of Luke. Theologically it is often interpreted as meaning that Jesus seeks to protect those responsible for his crucifixion on Golgotha from God's wrath . Jesus could have meant the soldiers who crucified him, the mob who demanded his crucifixion, the Jewish Sanhedrin or Pontius Pilate (each individually or all together).
In the same spirit he urged his listeners in the Sermon on the Mount: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" ( Mt 5,44 EU )
This statement is addressed to the "good thief", one of the two criminals ( thieves ) who were crucified by Jesus on the left and right. He says this about the "good thief" later called Dismas , after he had rebuked the unrepentant second criminal who mocked Jesus as a false messiah because, as the alleged son of God, he did not have the power to sacrifice himself and his two fellow sufferers from the cross to free. Simultaneously with the rebuke, the “repentant thief” acknowledges and confesses his bad deeds as well as the sonship of Jesus. Here Jesus acts according to his statements and promises "Whoever comes to me, I will not push him out" ( Jn 6:35 EU ). The point here is that everyone can find God, no matter what guilt they have brought on themselves through their actions.
In the last utterance in Luke's Gospel, Psalm 31 echoes: “You will free me from the net that they secretly laid for me; / because you are my refuge. I place my spirit in your hands with trust . ”( Ps 31 : 5-6 EU ) This saying is generally seen as an unreserved proof of Jesus' trust in God; this self-abandonment is seen as exemplary for the Christian.
Gospel of John
These words are addressed to Mary, his widowed mother, and to “the disciple whom he loved” (the Apostle John in the Church's tradition ). The direct interpretation sees in this the care of Jesus for his own even in the hour of his death. Luther (1912) translates: "Woman, see, that is your son!" And "Behold, that is your mother!". In his place, Jesus gives his mother another son (among other things for her care). The second part of verse 27 confirms this interpretation.
On the other hand, the choice of words “woman” seems distant and is therefore also interpreted allegorically by theologians : The first woman Eve - the “mother of all living”, whose disobedience in Paradise first led to sin and death and who made the mission of Jesus the Redeemer necessary - Mary is confronted as an ideal of the perfect, pure woman.
This statement is often used by theologians as evidence of the (also) human nature of Jesus, and by the Church Fathers as an argument against Docetism , which took the view that Jesus was not a real person. Again there are echoes of Psalm 22.
According to general theological opinion, Jesus does not mean here (or not exclusively) that his life is now coming to an end, but that his work as the redeemer of men (for whose sins he offers his life as an atonement for God) is now completed.
Meaning and effect
The number seven has the symbolic meaning of a holy whole in Judaism and in Christianity that emerged from it. Based on the number of days of the week, tradition knows many groups of sevens, biblically especially in the Revelation of John .
At the beginning of the 18th century, the Jesuit Alonso Messia Bedoya († 1732) in Lima developed an extra-liturgical form of devotion from the individual consideration of the Seven Last Words, which was held on Good Friday from 12 noon to 3 p.m. and therefore Tres horas ('three hours' ) was called. The custom spread through the Spanish-speaking countries in America to Europe. Haydn also created his famous work for such a devotion in Cádiz . In Italy, where Pope Pius VI. Permitted its use in 1789, it was called Tre ore di agonia . In the 19th and first half of the 20th century, this form of devotion as a three-hour service was popular with Protestant denominations, especially in English-speaking countries. Since it was not liturgy in the strict sense, musical instruments and sometimes the organ were used (contrary to the rules for church services on Good Friday). Due to changes in the sociology of piety and the rediscovery of the actual liturgical forms of celebration of Good Friday, however, this form of devotion is no longer common today.
Some Christian pastors active in the field of palliative care regard the traditionally handed down last seven words of Jesus as a kind of “program for a good death” and take inspiration from the biblical words, which they believe contain a deep inner truth with lasting validity for believers and non-believers for one's own practice of terminal care .
In music
The seven words were set to music several times; The best known is Joseph Haydn's work The Seven Last Words of Our Redeemer on the Cross , which is available in several versions for orchestra , string quartet , keyboard instrument and as an oratorio .
In a Viennese manuscript from 1494 the song Da Jesus hung on the cross is preserved in text and melody. A stanza is dedicated to each of the Seven Last Words of Christ. It became best known in the text variant by Johann Böschenstein and in the melody by Ludwig Senfl . Further versions, some with different texts, come from Johann Sebastian Bach ( little organ book , Since Jesus stood on the cross , BWV 621) and most recently by Johann Nepomuk David and Heinrich Spitta ( since Jesus stood on the cross , op. 95). Even Paul Gerhardt dealt with the topic ( Listen to my heart, the seven words ).
Christ's last words also appear in other Passion compositions of the 16th century, for example in the St. Matthew Passion by Antoine de Longueval (around 1505), in the Summa passionis by Jacobus Gallus (1587) and in the St. John Passion by Leonhard Lechner (1593), but always only as part of the passion story. The first independent works are The Seven Words of our dear Savior and Soulmaker Jesus Christ by Heinrich Schütz (1645, SWV 478), the Passion Music on the Seven Words of Jesus on the Cross by Augustin Pfleger (1670) and the cantata cycle The Seven Words of Heyland on the Cross by Christoph Graupner (1743). In these older settings, the fourth word “My God, my God, why did you leave me?” Is often emphasized.
In the epoch of sensitivity, the observer moved more into the center of the passion than the suffering Christ, and all seven words can only be found in one composition as an exception. One such exception is the poem Der Tod Jesu by Karl Wilhelm Ramler (1754), which was set to music by Carl Heinrich Graun ( Der Tod Jesu , 1755), Georg Philipp Telemann (1756) and Christian Ernst Graf (1780), among others .
A number of French compositions followed in the 19th and 20th centuries: Les sept paroles de Jésus-Christ by Guillaume Marcel de Marin (around 1800), La rédemption, Mystére a cinq Parties, 5me Partië: Les Sept Paroles by Giulio Alary ( 1850), Les Sept Paroles de NSJC sur la Croix by Charles François Gounod (1855), Les Sept paroles du Christ by César Franck (1859), Les Sept Paroles du Christ by Théodore Dubois (1867), Les Sept Paroles de Notre Seigneur Jésus -Christ by Adolphe Deslandres (1867), Les Sept Paroles de Notre Seigneur en Croix by Fernand de La Tombelle (1904), Sept Chorals-Poëmes d'Orgue pour les sept paroles du Xrist by Charles Tournemire (1935), La Passion by Georges Migot (1942) and Les Sept Dernieres Paroles du Christ by Jean-Marie Depelsenaire (1961). And in other countries, too, the topic was increasingly taken up again, such as The Atonement of the New Covenant by Carl Loewe (1847), Christ by Felix Draeseke (1905), La Passione by Gian Francesco Malipiero (1935), Passion music for mixed choir and six solo instruments based on the words of the Evangelists by Gerhard Siegfried Förster (1966) and Seven Words of Jesus on the Cross for violoncello, bayan and strings by Sofia Gubaidulina (1982). A few years ago Ruth Zechlin joined the list with The Seven Last Words of Jesus on the Cross (1996) and Zsolt Gárdonyi with The Seven Last Words on the Cross (1998). Even Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar (1970) contains six of the Seven Last Words.
In painting
In the painting, some of the last words of Jesus were depicted, as well as - rarely - all seven words. One of the earliest representations (17th century) is the woodcut from the Netherlands, which reproduces all seven words in a crucifixion picture as miniatures in writing (in Latin). In a seven-part cycle of paintings and a lecture by the painter, musician and writer Hortense von Gelmini , the seven words are each set individually in the picture.
Web links
[2] Hortense von Gelmini: The seven last words of Jesus on the cross , youtube
literature
- Angelika Daiker, Judith Bader-Reissing: Die reconciled. Palliative care in the light of the last seven words of Jesus. Patmos Verlag, Freiburg i. B. 2014. ISBN 978-3-8436-0531-1 .
- Ulrich Wendel: Seven words for life. A companion for the seven weeks of the Passion Time SCM R.Brockhaus, Witten 2013. ISBN 978-3-417-26523-1 .
- The Devotion Of The Three Hours Agony On Good Friday , with an introduction by Herbert Thurston (1899) ( digitized in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Three-hours service , in: JG Davies (Ed.): A Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship. London: SCM Press 1972, pp. 355f., And James Monti: The week of salvation: history and traditions of Holy Week. Huntington, Ind .: Our Sunday Visitor 1993 ISBN 0-87973-532-5 , pp. 205ff.
- ↑ Angelika Daiker, Judith Bader-Reissing: Reconciled die. Palliative care in the light of the last seven words of Jesus. Freiburg i. B. 2014 (blurb).
- ↑ Since Jesus was standing on the cross , Böschenstein text in hymn version
- ↑ Notes on Since Jesus stood on the cross by Johann Sebastian Bach ( pdf ; 60 kB)
- ↑ Text to Listen, my heart, the seven words by Paul Gerhardt
- ↑ [1] The seven last words of Jesus on the cross , youtube
- ↑ Hortense von Gelmini The seven last words of Jesus on the cross , as an art print Leporello, 2002 with a text by Andreas Laun published by LPV-Hortense von Gelmini