Eloi, eloi, lamma sabacthani?

Saint Mark - Chapter 15

Eloi, eloi, lamma sabacthani? J-J Tissot

[34] Et hora nona exclamavit Jesus voce magna, dicens : Eloi, eloi, lamma sabacthani? quod est interpretatum : Deus meus, Deus meus, ut quid dereliquisti me?
And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying: Eloi, Eloi, lamma sabacthani? Which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?


[35] Et quidam de circumstantibus audientes, dicebant : Ecce Eliam vocat.
And some of the standers by hearing, said: Behold he calleth Elias.

From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)

It is the ninth hour, that is to say, 3.00 PM, and the Jews, fancying that the death of their Victim will be delayed for some time longer, are beginning to withdraw one after the other.  All of a sudden, under stress of a supreme agony, convulsing alike body and soul, Jesus gives utterance to that cry of anguish, the most heartrending whichever resounded upon this earth; 

"My God!  My knee Guard!  Why hast thou forsaken me?"

Mary flings herself forward towards her dying Son and all the other mourners resume their places; Mary Magdalene is still at the feet of the Lord.  It is worthy of notice that this dying cry of Jesus is a quotation from the 21st Psalm, the whole of the first part of which, so extremely precise is the prophecy it contains, might be an actual description of the tragic drama which culminated on Calvary.  Knowing this fact makes it difficult enough to understand the mistake made by the spectators, who were most of them Jews well acquainted with the Scriptures.  "Behold he calleth Elias!" They scornfully exclaimed; truly a strange remark from the lips of Children of Israel!  Some authors are of opinion that the Jews wilfully travestied the cry of their Victim by a mocking play upon words.  But who could possibly believe that any Jew would have ventured to turn into ridicule in a manner so insolent the deeply reverenced name of Jehovah?  It is far more natural to suppose that the words uttered by Jesus were not clearly heard, and that it was this which led to the unintentionally mistake, with the ironical remarks quoted in the sacred text.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam