Matthew 27:45-54

The Death of Jesus

Matthew 27:45-54
45
From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. ​
46
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” ​
47
When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He is calling Elijah.”
48
One of them quickly ran and brought a sponge. He filled it with sour wine, put it on a reed, and held it up for Jesus to drink.
49
But the others said, “Leave Him alone. Let us see if Elijah comes to save Him.”
50
When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He yielded up His spirit.

The Death and Immediate Aftermath

51
At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split. ​
52
The tombs broke open, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.
53
After Jesus’ resurrection, when they had come out of the tombs, they entered the holy city and appeared to many people.
54
When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified and said, “Truly this was the Son of God.” ​
Read Full Chapter 27

See also

Where else Scripture says this.

  • Psalms 22:1

    My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning?
    from verse 46

  • Hebrews 5:7

    During the days of Jesus’ earthly life, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence.
    from verse 46

  • Isaiah 53:10

    Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and to cause Him to suffer; and when His soul is made a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
    from verse 46

  • Mark 15:34

    At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
    from verse 45

  • Psalms 71:11

    saying, “God has forsaken him; pursue him and seize him, for there is no one to rescue him.”
    from verse 46

  • John 19:28

    After this, knowing that everything had now been accomplished, and to fulfill the Scripture, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”
    from verse 46

  • John 19:30

    When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished.” And bowing His head, He yielded up His spirit.
    from verse 46

  • Isaiah 26:19

    Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is like the dew of the morning, and the earth will bring forth her dead.
    from verse 52

  • Luke 23:46

    Then Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit.” And when He had said this, He breathed His last.
    from verse 46

  • Hebrews 10:19

    Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,
    from verse 51

  • Hebrews 10:22

    let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
    from verse 51

  • 1 Thessalonians 4:14

    For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.
    from verse 52

Where this happens

All Matthew Sites (Jerusalem)
All Matthew Sites (Jerusalem) View full PDF
Matthew 27:45-55
Matthew 27:45-55 View full PDF
The Last Week of Jesus' Life (With Reference Table)
The Last Week of Jesus' Life (With Reference Table) View full PDF

Map © Biblica Open Bible Maps · CC BY-SA 4.0

Study this passage

Commentary written on this passage, not on a single verse.

Historical interpretation

Twelve Centuries of Reception

67 surviving comments on this passage. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.

67 quotes · AD 108–1274
Ante-NicenePost-NiceneEarly MedievalMedieval
1002003004005006007008009001000110012001300

Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.

AD 108Ignatius of AntiochAnte-NiceneSourceEpistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians
How shall we be able to live apart from Him, whose disciples the prophets themselves in the Spirit did wait for Him as their Teacher? And therefore He whom they rightly waited for, having come, raised them from the dead.
AD 171Dionysius of CorinthAnte-Nicene
Ad Polycarp. Ep. 7: When we were together at Heliopolis, we both observed such an interference of the moon with the sun quite unexpectedly, for it was not the season of their conjunction; and then from the ninth hour until evening, beyond the power of nature, continuing in a direct line between us and the sun. And this obscuration we saw begin from the east, and so pass to the extreme of the sun's orb, and again return back the same way, being thus the very reverse ofan ordinary eclipse.
AD 220TertullianAnte-NiceneSourceOn Fasting
And so the "pressure" must be maintained up to that hour in which the orb-involved from the sixth hour in a general darkness-performed for its dead Lord a sorrowful act of duty; so that we too may then return to enjoyment when the universe regained its sunshine. If this savours more of the spirit of Christian religion, while it celebrates more the glory of Christ, I am equally able, from the self-same order of events, to fix the condition of late protraction of the Station; (namely), that we are to fast till a late hour, awaiting the time of the Lord's sepulture, when Joseph took down and entombed the body which he had requested.
AD 220TertullianAnte-NiceneSourceAgainst Praxeas
We have, moreover, in that other Gospel a clear revelation, i.e. of the Son's distinction from the Father, "My God, why hast Thou forsaken me? " and again, (in the third Gospel, ) "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.
AD 220TertullianAnte-NiceneSourceAgainst Praxeas
He exclaims that God had forsaken Him. He commends His spirit into the hands of the Father.
AD 220TertullianAnte-NiceneSourceAgainst Praxeas
However, if you persist in pushing your views further, I shall find means of answering you with greater stringency, and of meeting you with the exclamation of the Lord Himself, so as to challenge you with the question, What is your inquiry and reasoning about that? You have Him exclaiming in the midst of His passion: "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? " Either, then, the Son suffered, being "forsaken" by the Father, and the Father consequently suffered nothing, inasmuch as He forsook the Son; or else, if it was the Father who suffered, then to what God was it that He addressed His cry? But this was the voice of flesh and soul, that is to say, of man-not of the Word and Spirit, that is to say, not of God; and it was uttered so as to prove the impassibility of God, who "forsook" His Son, so far as He handed over His human substance to the suffering of death.
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