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The Death of Jesus. 45 [a](A)From noon onward,(B) darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 46 (C)And about three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?[b] which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 47 [c]Some of the bystanders who heard it said, “This one is calling for Elijah.”

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Footnotes

  1. 27:45 Cf. Am 8:9 where on the day of the Lord “the sun will set at midday.”
  2. 27:46 Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?: Jesus cries out in the words of Ps 22:2a, a psalm of lament that is the Old Testament passage most frequently drawn upon in this narrative. In Mark the verse is cited entirely in Aramaic, which Matthew partially retains but changes the invocation of God to the Hebrew Eli, possibly because that is more easily related to the statement of the following verse about Jesus’ calling for Elijah.
  3. 27:47 Elijah: see note on Mt 3:4. This prophet, taken up into heaven (2 Kgs 2:11), was believed to come to the help of those in distress, but the evidences of that belief are all later than the gospels.