Johannes Böschenstain wrote “Da Jhesus an dem Kreuze stundt” (When Jesus on the Cross was found), which begins in the first line in English “Seven times our blessed Saviour spoke.” It was written about 1515, and appeared in 1537 in Michael Vehe’s Gesangbüchlin Vom Jahre (Hymnbook for the Year), No. LII, in 8 stanzas, beginning on page 108 in the 1853 printing. In German the line about seven sayings does not appear until the fourth line (die Sieben Wort, die er sprach). The theme of the hymn expounds on the seven sayings made by Jesus while on the cross (See: Luke 23:34; Luke 23:43; John 19:26-27; John 19:28; Matthew 27:46 John 19:30; Luke 23:46).
und ihm sein leychnam war verwundt
mit bitterlichem schmerBen
die Sieben Wort, die er sprach
betracht in deinem herBen
Böschenstain was born in 1472 at Esslingen, Wurttemberg. He was the son of Heinrich Böschenstein. He was a teacher of Greek and Hebrew; he published a Hebrew grammar in 1514. He died in Nördlingen in 1540.
Frances Elizabeth Cox freely translated the German into the English hymn beginning “Seven times our blessed Saviour spoke,” which she called “Hymn for Good Friday.” She included it in her Hymns from the German (London: Rivingtons, 1864). The daughter of George V. Cox, Frances was born at Oxford in 1812. She died in 1897 (some sources say in Iffley, England).
Cox provided a companion of John 6:63 for the hymn – “…the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”
When on the cross our sins he took
And died lest man should perish.
Let us his last and dying Words
In our remembrance cherish.
2. “Forgive them, Father, just and true,
Forgive! they know not what they do.”
So far his love extended.
Forgive us, Lord, for we, too, have
Through ignorance offended.
3. Now to the contrite thief he cries:
“Thou, verily, in Paradise
Shalt meet me ere to-morrow.”
Lord, take us to thy Kingdom soon
Who linger here in sorrow.
4. To weeping Mary standing by,
“Behold thy son!” now hear him cry;
To John, “Behold thy mother!”
Protect, Lord, those we leave behind,
Let each befriend the other.
5. Now from his frame exhausted burst
Those few faint Words, “I thirst! I thirst!”
O Lord! for our salvation
Thy thirst was great: then help us still
To overcome temptation.
6. Then rose that Cry, “My God, oh why
Forsake me in my Agony.”
Lord, thou wast here forsaken,
That we might be received on high;
Let this hope our hope awaken.
7. Next, hear him, ere his Spirit fled
Proclaim aloud, “’Tis finished!”
To thee our work commending,
May we each task thou dost impose
Bring to a joyful ending.
8. One piercing Cry, and all is done!
“Father, to thy true Hands alone
I now commend my Spirit.”
Be this, when sinks our dying heart;
The wish that last shall stir it.
9. Whoe’er, by sense of sin oppressed,
On these blest Words his thoughts doth rest,
Thence joy and hope obtaineth:
And through God’s Love and boundless Grace
A peaceful conscience gaineth.
10. O Jesu Christ! our Lord and Guide,
Who hast for our salvation died!
On this for ever dwelling,
May we each hour thy death regard,
Thy grief, all grief excelling!
The hymn is in 8.8.7.8.7. meter and is set to an A minor German melody believed to have been written around AD 1400. It is found in the 1545 Babst Gesangbuch, and called Das Jesus an des Kreuzes.
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