Seven last words from the cross

The Sayings of Jesus on the cross (also called the Seven Last Words from the Cross) are seven expressions biblically attributed to Jesus during his crucifixion. Traditionally, the brief sayings have been called "words". They are gathered from the four Canonical Gospels. Three of the sayings appear only in the Gospel of Luke and three only in the Gospel of John. The other saying appears both in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark. In Matthew and Mark, Jesus cries out to God. In Luke, he forgives his killers, reassures the penitent thief, and commends his spirit to the Father. In John, he speaks to his mother, says he thirsts, and declares the end of his earthly life.

A person's final articulated words said prior to death or as death approaches generally are taken to have particular significance. These seven sayings, being "last words", may provide a way to understand what was ultimately important to this man who was dying on the cross. The sparsity of sayings recorded in the biblical accounts suggests that Jesus remained relatively silent for the hours he hung there.

Since the 16th century they have been widely used in sermons on Good Friday, and entire books have been written on theological analysis of them. The Seven Last Words from the Cross are an integral part of the liturgy in the Anglican, Catholic, Protestant, and other Christian traditions.

The seven-sayings tradition is an example of the Christian approach to the construction of a Gospel harmony in which material from different Gospels is combined, producing an account that goes beyond each Gospel. Several composers have set the Seven Last Words to music.

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