What Does Mark 15:34 Mean in the King James?
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The cry names abandonment, yet still addresses God as “my God.”
THE MEANING
This verse gives voice to the experience of being left alone without softening its anguish. The question is spoken directly to God, and the words “my God” remain within it: felt absence and relationship occupy the same cry.
THE ROOT
ἐγκατέλιπες
enkatelipes
GROWS FROM
λείπω
λείπω (leipō) means to leave, be absent, or be lacking; ἐγκατέλιπες is a form of the compound verb ἐγκαταλείπω, to leave behind or forsake.
“forsaken” in this verse is enkatelipes. The Greek word belongs to a family that holds together leaving behind and being absent or lacking. Here that layered sense is voiced as a question addressed to “my God,” not as a detached statement that the relationship is over.
ALSO GROWS
kataleipō: to leave behind or leave remaining
καταλείπω
Its shared λειπ- stem makes the sense of being left behind audible within the verse’s word for forsaking.
hypoleipō: to leave behind or leave remaining
ὑπολείπω
This related compound shows the same root carrying the idea of what remains after something has departed.
elleipsis: lack or deficiency
ἔλλειψις
The root’s association with absence and lack gives the cry another edge: what is voiced is not only departure, but the felt absence left in its wake.
THE PATTERN
Lament can name felt abandonment while remaining an address to God.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;THE THREAD
To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?Mark’s cry echoes the opening line of Psalm 22, so the words sit within a larger lament rather than standing alone. The psalm continues from the question of abandonment into further cries, making the anguish here part of an unfolding address.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us