“My God, why have you forsaken me?” ~ TXAB: The Christ Almighty Blog

STATIONS OF THE CROSS: How Jesus went to his death.

Mark 15.33-36, Matthew 27.45-49.

Just before he died, Jesus shouted out something in a language his bystanders didn’t recognize. And a lot of present-day commentators don’t recognize it either. We know it was Psalm 22.1, but some of us say Jesus quoted it in Aramaic; some say Hebrew. Which was it?

The reason for the confusion is Mark and Matthew don’t match. Both of ’em recorded Jesus’s words as best they could—but they transliterated them into the Greek alphabet, which doesn’t correspond to Hebrew and Syriac sounds as neatly as you’d think. (And if your web browser is so old it doesn’t do Unicode, you won’t be able to read ’em either.)

VERSE	ORIGINAL	TRANSLITERATION
Ps 22.1, Hebrew	אֵלִ֣י אֵלִ֣י לָמָ֣ה עֲזַבְתָּ֑נִי	Elí Elí, lamá azavettáni?
Ps 22.1, Syriac	ܐܰܠܳܗܝ ܐܰܠܳܗܝ ܠܡܳܢܳܐ ܫܒ݂ܰܩܬ݁ܳܢܝ	Elahí Elahí, lamaná šavaqtaní?
Mk 15.34, Greek	ἐλωΐ ἐλωΐ, λεμᾶ σαβαχθανί;	Elo’í Elo’í, lemá savahthaní? (or σαβακτανεί/savaktaneí in the Codex Sinaiticus.)
Mt 27.46, Greek	ἠλί ἠλί, λεμὰ σαβαχθανί;	Ilí ilí, lemá savahthaní?

Just based on how the gospels’ authors wrote the word for “my God,” Elí in Hebrew or Elahí in Syriac, it kinda looks like Mark was quoting a Syriac translation of the psalms, and Matthew the Hebrew original.

There are three reasons I feel Jesus is most likely to have quoted bible in Hebrew:

It is the language King David wrote his psalm in.
It’d explain why the people who heard Jesus quote it, didn’t understand him. First-century Israelis spoke Syriac; that’s what the New Testament meant by Ἑβραϊστί/Evrahistí and Ἑβραΐδι/Evra’ídi, “Hebraic.” Jn 5.2, Ac 22.2, 26.14, Rv 9.11 In the first century Hebrew was a dead language, only spoken by scribes like Jesus.
It’s way easier to confuse Elí with Ἡλίας/Ilías, the Greek version of אֵלִיָּה/Eliyyáhu, “Elijah,” than it is Elahí.

Regardless, in my translation the words in Jesus’s mouth are Syriac in Mark, and Hebrew in Matthew. ’Cause that’s what the authors were apparently going for.

Mark 15.33-36 KWL: 33Upon the coming of the sixth hour since sunrise—noon—; darkness comes over all the land till the ninth hour.; 34In the ninth hour Jesus cries out with a loud voice,; “?ܐܰܠܳܗܝ ܐܰܠܳܗܝ ܠܡܳܢܳܐ ܫܒ݂ܰܩܬ݁ܳܢܝ”; which is translated,; “My God my God, for what reason have you left me behind?” Ps 22.1; 35Hearing this, some bystanders said, “Look, he calls Elijah.”; 36One of the runners, filling a sponge of vinegar,; putting it on a reed, gives Jesus a drink,; saying, “Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him.”
Matthew 27.45-49 KWL: 45From the sixth hour since sunrise—noon—; darkness comes over all the land till the ninth hour.; 46Around the ninth hour Jesus cries out with a loud voice,; saying, “?אִיל אִיל למֹנֹא שׁבַֽקתֹ֗ני”; that is,; “My God my God, why did you leave me behind?” Ps 22.1; 47Some of the bystanders, hearing, are saying this:; “This man calls Elijah.”; 48Quickly a runner, one of them, leaves them.; Taking a sponge full of vinegar,; putting it on a reed, he gives Jesus a drink.; 49The others say,; “Let’s see if Elijah comes, and will save him.”

Awright, now that we have the language sorta squared away, let’s get to what was going on here.

Why the quote?

By this point, Jesus had spent the past six hours in agony on the cross. Crucifixion hurts, doesn’t get any easier over time, and wasn’t meant to.

During that time, he had to put up with the mockery of passers-by, and of the priests and scribes who sentenced him to death.

Matthew 27.39-43 KWL: 39Passersby are slandering Jesus,; shaking their heads against him,; 40saying, “Destroying the temple and building it in three days?; Save yourself.; If you’re God’s son, come down from the cross.”; 41The head priests likewise,; mocking Jesus with the scribes and elders, saying:; 42“He saved others.; He can’t save himself.; He’s Israel’s king?; He has to come down from the cross now,; and we’ll trust him.; 43He follows God?; God has to rescue him now, if he wants him—; for he said ‘I’m God’s son.’ ”

Jesus, who knows his scriptures better than we do, immediately recognized they were fulfilling this bit of the scriptures:

Psalm 22.7-8 KWL: 7All who see me, mock me.; They shake their heads, open-mouthed:; 8“He committed to the LORD?; Then God should help him escape.; God should snatch him away,; for surely God delights in him!”

Certain translators, recognizing the priests’ mockery was darned near quoting David ben Jesse, render this passage as if the priests were deliberately quoting the psalm.

Matthew 27.42-43 Amplified: 42“He saved others [from death]; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him and acknowledge Him. 43HE TRUSTS IN GOD; LET GOD RESCUE Him now, IF HE DELIGHTS IN HIM; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ”

But I’m pretty sure the priests didn’t have that much presence of mind as to what they were doing. I mean, if they had—if here they’re intentionally quoting bible so they can make fun of Jesus—it meant they had no respect for the scriptures, nor the God who inspired them either. Not for nothing did Jesus point out they risked blaspheming the Holy Spirit.

In any event, Jesus called them on it. They may not have realized they were quoting Psalm 22, but Jesus straight-up said “Psalm 22.” But not in those words, ’cause the psalms didn’t yet have addresses. The way you referred to a psalm back then was to quote its first line. And that line was… well, I’ll just quote the first few verses.


Psalm 22.1-6 KWL: 1My God my God, why did you leave me so far from saving,; so far from my roaring words?; 2My God, I call by day and you don’t answer;; I call by night and I’m not silent.; 3You’re holy.; You dwell on Israel’s praises.; 4Our ancestors trusted you.; They trusted and you helped them escape.; 5They shrieked to you and slipped away.; They were unashamedly confident in you.; 6I’m a maggot, not a man—; humanity’s disgrace, the people’s scorn.

Mark has Jesus quote it in Syriac, for everybody to understand. Matthew has him quote it in Hebrew, so only priests and scribes would know what he was saying. And almost immediately, those who understood, misunderstood. They wilfully chose to misunderstand. They didn’t care to recognize they’d been fulfilling the psalm.

People still misunderstand. Christians commonly think Jesus quoted Psalm 22 because he felt he fulfilled it; that he felt abandoned by God. Jean Calvin, the 16th-century bishop of Geneva, once wrote Jesus must’ve certainly felt like his Father was far, far away from him; so the quote must’ve felt appropriate. But Calvin, like so many Christians before and since, was simply imagining how he’d feel on the cross, then projecting it upon Jesus. Far easier to do that, than learn Jesus’s cultural context.

Now back to the first century. The bystanders were looking for any reason to make fun, so they glommed onto the idea Jesus was shouting for Elijah. According to Pharisee beliefs about the End Times, Elijah was supposed to descend from heaven before Messiah appeared, and reveal him to the world. Mt 17.10, Mk 9.11 Which, once you realize John the baptist fulfilled this idea, Mt 17.13 already happened. But the bystanders didn’t know this. To their minds—much like Albert Schweitzer speculated 19 centuries later—Jesus was screaming in despair for Elijah because things weren’t happening at all the way he expected.

The Father turned his face away?

Another popular theory about why Jesus quoted the psalm, is the idea Jesus’s passion created a split in the trinity: Because Jesus took on the sins of humanity at the cross, and because God can’t abide sin, the Father had to separate himself from the Son. So the reason Jesus screamed, “Why hast thou forsaken me?” Mk 15.34 KJV is because the Father at that moment actually had forsaken him. He could look upon his Son no longer. So much for his promise, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” He 12.5 KJV

As theologian Wayne Grudem put it in his Systematic Theology:

But far worse than desertion by even the closest of human friends was the fact that Jesus was deprived of the closeness to the Father that had been the deepest joy of his heart for all his earthly life. When Jesus cried out “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mt 27.46 he showed that he was finally cut off from the sweet fellowship with his heavenly Father that had been the unfailing source of his inward strength and the element of greatest joy in a life filled with sorrow. As Jesus bore our sins on the cross, he was abandoned by his heavenly Father, who is “of purer eyes than to behold evil.” Hk 1.13 He faced the weight of the guilt of millions of sins alone. Grudem 574

Thing is, Grudem’s idea is heresy. And no, that’s not just my opinion. The creeds make it clear the trinity cannot split. Can NOT. The Son is “of one being with the Father.” We’re not talking about two guys who get along most of the time, but in this particualar instance they went their own way. We’re talking one God. You split the trinity, you get two gods. Or three. You get polytheism. So like I said, it’s heresy.

Even though Jesus bore our sins He 9.28 on the cross, he did so in obedience to the Father’s plan to save the world. Which is just as much his plan.

Those folks who insist the psalm implies the Father forsook Jesus? They really oughta read the rest of the psalm.

Psalm 22.22-24 KWL: 22I celebrate your name with my brothers,; and praise you in the middle of the assembly.; 23You who respect the LORD: Praise him!; All Jacob’s seed, honor him!; All Israel’s seed, abide in him!; 24For God doesn’t scorn, doesn’t flinch,; from the suffering of sufferers.; He doesn’t hide his face from them.; They cry to God, and he hears!

David may have felt forsaken, but he knew from experience God doesn’t abandon us. Certainly not when we’re obediently following him; definitely not at our lowest point. And who fits this description better than Jesus?

I’ve learned from long experience any time Grudem taught something iffy, look up his proof-texts. Dude had no respect for bible when he had another idea he loved better than bible. Here he quoted Habakkuk’s statement God’s “of purer eyes than to behold evil.” Hk 1.13 KJV But again, folks: Context.

Habakkuk 1.13 ESV: You who are of purer eyes than to see evil; and cannot look at wrong,; why do you idly look at traitors; and remain silent when the wicked swallows up; the man more righteous than he?

“Why is it you ‘can’t abide sin,’ yet I can totally see you abiding sin?”

I quoted the English Standard Version instead of my own translation ’cause Grudem was one of the main advocates for this translation, and is the general editor of its study bible. (Grudem was a big fan of complementarianism, and found the NRSV was too gender-inclusive for his liking. The ESV is not.) So he should have been aware of the rest of the verse he misquoted, because it in fact says the very opposite of what he hoped to prove by referring to it in his theology book. Habakkuk’s complaint was the LORD should be too righteous to tolerate evil, yet the world has plenty of evildoers. It not only doesn’t say God can’t abide sin: It’s Habakkuk’s complaint he does. God’s response was he won’t forever. Hk 2 Still, he proves a lot more gracious than we are.

And really that’s the reason Christians teach this heretic idea of the Father abandoning the Son: If they were God, it’s how they’d behave. They lack grace, so their concept of God lacks grace. They’d forsake the sinner whom God still wants to save. They’d be so legalistic about forsaking the sinner, they’d forsake Jesus himself on a technicality. Thank God he’s not this way at all. We cry to God, as David said, and he hears. He totally heard Jesus. He’ll hear you too.

But to be fair, some the folks who claim the Father abandoned Jesus, aren’t so heartless: They’re simply repeating what they’e been taught. They never double-checked it against the scriptures. I mean, it sounds shocking: The Father would separate himself from the Son? He must hate sin so much. And yes, God’s absolutely anti-sin. But his mercy is far greater than his condemnation. His love overrules his outrage. We too should emphasize forgiveness over punishment. Exactly like our Father.

03 April 2026