ContradictionsReading order 214Bible context 2 min read
What were the last words of Jesus?
The death scenes preserve different final sayings, and Matthew does not quote the words of the last cry itself.
- Textual conflict
- Interpretive tension
- The passages pull in different directions, but the conflict depends on how their wording, scope, or narrative context is read.
- Importance
- Major
- A major event or claim with wider implications.
Luke and John place different sayings immediately before death, but neither excludes further words and Matthew leaves the final cry unquoted.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Matthew records abandonment language followed by an unquoted final cry
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
Matthew 27:46-50
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Matthew 27
Luke ends Jesus' speech with entrusting his spirit to the Father
And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.