Ever since Tatian’s Diatessaron (c. 150 CE) there has been a tradition within the Christian Church of harmonizing the life of Jesus and blend together the four gospel accounts so as to compose a biography of the Lord. Perhaps nowhere is this tendency to harmonization more clearly demonstrated than in the sayings of Jesus from the cross. In fact, there are seven so-called ‘sayings from the cross’ recorded within our New Testament, but it sometimes comes as a surprise to discover just how these seven sayings are distributed. We note the following table:
1. The Sayings of Jesus from the Cross
§1.) ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Mark 15:33/Matthew 27:46)
§2.) ‘Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.’ (Luke 23:34)
§3.) ‘Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43)
§4.) ‘Father into your hands I commit my spirit.’ (Luke 23:46)
§5.) ‘Woman behold your son ... Behold your mother. (John 19:26—27)
§6.) ‘I am thirsty.’ (John 19:28)
§7.) ‘It is finished!’(John 19:30)
2. Distinctives in Presentation within the Gospels
The first thing to notice about the distribution of the sayings is that the sole saying recorded in both Matthew and Mark is the same, probably due to Matthew’s reliance upon Mark for the passion narratives in his gospel. This means that if the only gospel we had was Mark, we would have quite a distinctive picture of the crucifixion. Here, the only statement of Jesus is one of extreme dereliction, of forsakeness and isolation.