Thursday, April 2, 2009

Crucifixion interpretations

While hanging on the cross, the Gospel of Mark has Jesus asking, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Many readers find this theologically perplexing, believing that God left him to die on the cross. According to a common interpretation of the scriptures, God the Father was turning away from Jesus at this time because he was suffering in the place of sinners. Others recognise this as an exact quotation of the first verse of Psalm 22, a common way at the time to refer to an entire Psalm.
That Psalm begins with cries of despair, but ends on a note of hope and trust in God's triumph and deliverance. It also contains several details that have been taken to apply to Jesus' crucifixion, such as the soldiers casting lots for Jesus' garments and leaving his bones unbroken. Still, others of a long-held tradition see Jesus' words as the ultimate climax of Jesus' entering into the human condition; his exclamation here evinces his full experience and solidarity with humanity.
Even the experience of alienation from God. Yet, others consider "why hast thou forsaken me" to be a mistranslation of the original Aramaic: they argue that a better translation is "for this I was kept" or "why hast thou let me to live?." Jesus' final words as recorded in Luke 23:46 were "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit."
John 19:30 describes Jesus' final words as "It is finished" upon his death. Also, the account in John does not mention Jesus asking for the "bitter cup" to be taken away from him while praying in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before (eventually ending his prayer with the words, "nevertheless not my will, but thine be done"), but rather skips this and proceeds directly to Jesus' acceptance of God's will, expounding upon his attitude of surrender (John 18:11). Although, it does include his praying to God to watch over his followers.

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