Ehrman says:
an example from John is that Jesus is hanging on the cross, and he cries out, I’m thirsty. And the author tells us that the reason Jesus said he was thirsty wasn’t so much because he was thirsty but because he wanted to fulfill the scripture because there’s a scripture, a Hebrew Bible passage, an Old Testament passage, where it talks about being thirsty.
He concludes:
so in John’s gospel in particular, Jesus’s death isn’t an agonizing moment for Jesus.
Bart, with all due respect and humility, crucifixion wasn’t a bowl of cherries. No one has to say that the one being crucified was in agony. That is a given. Little kids understand that.
It’s an opportunity for Jesus to fulfill scripture. And so you combine that with what’s going on with Mark and Luke, and then you throw in the material from Matthew, and what you end up with is this famous idea that Jesus had seven last dying words - the seven last words of the dying Jesus, which becomes important in churches today that celebrate these seven last words. But in fact, they’re not found in any gospel.
That is frightening. If your average bear were to take credit for those statements, no big deal. But, Ehrman is selling books like crazy as a big scholary biblical guru and influencing many to reject Christ.
Watch this: Jesus was thirsty and Jesus fulfilled OT prophecy! They are not mutually exclusive. You see how easily that irreconcilable difference was reconciled? Just like that.