Search Help.

Hello everyone, Hope all is well. I wanted to do a search on John 19:28 on Jesus' 5th saying from the cross "I thirst". How would I search I thirst for every book in my library to see if there is anything that deals with the 7 last sayings, or anything that talks about that verse in particular. Thanks you guys. -Jerry

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Rosie Perera

1. Jesus' "7 last sayings" are often called his "last words" from the cross, even though most of them consist of more than one word, and published books usually spell out numbers, so searching for "seven last words" is likely to get you more hits than "7 last sayings". I get 164 hits in 92 resources.

2. If you want to focus specifically on the "I thirst" saying, then add thirst to your search criteria (turn on "Match all word forms" so that you'll pick up mentions of both thirst and thirsty). With that restriction I've now narrowed down my search results to 107 in 16 resources. These are the ones:

3. They are also called "passion sayings" so I add that to my search criteria using the list operator (kind of like OR) and here's my final search:

("passion sayings", "seven last words") thirst

Some resources that seem to have more info on the "seven last words" and "I thirst" in particular are:

Brown, Raymond E. The Death of the Messiah, Volume 1 and 2: From Gethsemane to the Grave, a Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels. New York; London: Yale University Press, 1994. (both volumes available only as part of the Raymond E. Brown Collection)

Jeffrey, David L. A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1992.

4. Alternatively, you can search for that verse reference to see what authors mention it, using this syntax: <John 19:28>. The number of hits I get in my library for that is overwhelming, so you'd want to narrow it down somehow, e.g., include thirst or "last words" in the search criteria.

Jerry Walker

Rosie thanks so much for your help!