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Crucifixion

Faith Q&A › Metropolitan Youssef › Our Lord and the Faith › Crucifixion

The question

The Holy Gospel of St. Mark 15:34 seems to be repeated somewhere else as "My power, my power it has left me." Was this in anything you've read?

The answer

The Holy Gospel of St. Mark 15:34 states, "And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?' which is translated 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

An Orthodox interpretation is that in His Humanity, the Lord Jesus Christ is actually forsaken: in, and with, and for us, who are forsaken and abandoned. Eloi is an Aramaic form, which means "my God." Also this is the first verse in Psalm 22 which prophesies the crucifixion of the Lord.

I tend to look at the Lord Jesus Christ upon the Holy Cross not upon the cursed cross. The Lord Jesus Christ delivers those believers from the "curse" caused by their inability to live by the law of God (Genesis 3:14-19, Genesis 9:25, Mark 11:21, and Galatians 3:10-14).

Answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab)

Related questions

Questions answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab) of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Question 95 on the Diocese’s Q&A site. Questions and answers © Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. All rights reserved.