Lama Sabachthani

The Aramaic phrase carried into the Greek text as the dying cry of Jesus opens a psalm of forsakenness in his own voice. The cry quotes the first line of Ps 22, so the umbrella holds two passages — the gospel cry and the psalm it draws from.

The cry from the cross

The cry preserves the original-language wording inside the gospel narrative, then translates it for the reader:

"And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani? Which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mr 15:34).

Psalm 22 as the source

The translation given inside the gospel matches the opening of Ps 22 word for word:

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? [Why are you so] far from helping me, [and from] the words of my groaning?" (Ps 22:1).

Ps 22 stands behind the cry: the psalm is one of the principal texts grouped under the apparent forsakenness of the righteous, and the gospel scene puts that opening line on Jesus's lips at the moment of death.