Mark 15:33-41

Contemporary English Version

The Death of Jesus

(Matthew 27.45-56; Luke 23.44-49; John 19.28-30)

³³About noon the sky turned dark and stayed that way until around three o'clock. ³⁴^(A) Then about that time Jesus shouted, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?”^[a] which means, “My God, my God, why have you deserted me?”

³⁵Some of the people standing there heard Jesus and said, “He is calling for Elijah.”^[b] ³⁶^(B) One of them ran and grabbed a sponge. After he had soaked it in wine, he put it on a stick and held it up to Jesus. He said, “Let's wait and see if Elijah will come^[c] and take him down!” ³⁷Jesus shouted and then died.

³⁸^(C) At once the curtain in the temple^[d] tore in two from top to bottom.

³⁹A Roman army officer was standing in front of Jesus. When the officer saw how Jesus died, he said, “This man really was the Son of God!”

^40-41^(D) Some women were looking on from a distance. They and many others had come with Jesus to Jerusalem. But even before this they had been his followers and had helped him while he was in Galilee. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joseph were two of these women. Salome was also one of them.

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Footnotes

15.34 Eloi … sabachthani: These words are in Aramaic, a language spoken in Palestine during the time of Jesus.
15.35 Elijah: The name “Elijah” sounds something like “Eloi,” which means “my God.”
15.36 see if Elijah will come: See the note at 6.15.
15.38 curtain in the temple: There were two curtains in the temple. One was at the entrance, and the other separated the holy place from the most holy place that the Jewish people thought of as God's home on earth. The second curtain is probably the one which is meant.