1- the 'cognoscendi' around the cross would have recognized Jesus' Aramaic
cry. what Ben forgets is that the Aramaic cry is a synoptic, not a
Johannine, saying- this quotation does not exist in John's Gospel!!!! We,
then, have a confusion of sources indicated by Ben's response.
But, given Ben's conflation of sources:
2- That Jesus would quote the beginning of the Psalm in Aramaic (which is of
course perfectly possible) and then at death decided to quote in Greek the
last of the Psalm.
Now, to the question, why would Jesus quote a Psalm (which is not taken as a
psalm by the crowd) in Aramaic and switch to Greek if he wished to make a point?
Further, if ANY of the Gospels had wished to put these words in combination
into Jesus mouth, they could have. But the Synoptics do not have any form
of the verb telew; and John has no cry of dereliction! The combination of
these two, then, exists only in Ben's imagination and perhaps the Diatessaron.
What this suggests is that the whole complex is a literary construct, in
greek, by the author of the Gospel, without any trace of historical support.
Or, to put it simply, the final cry (in John, remember), is a literary
device, not an ipssisima verba Jesu.
Jim
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jim West, ThD
Quartz Hill School of Theology
jwest@highland.net