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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani
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ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI.—These Aram. [Note: Aramaic.] words occur in Mar_15:34, being an Eng. transliteration from the Greek. The underlying Aram. [Note: Aramaic.] would be Elahi, Elahi, lema shabaqtani. The ô in Eloi is probably a local pronunciation of â as aw or ô, as in some Syriac dialects. Dalman, however, maintains that our Lord spoke the first two words in Hebrew and the other two in Aramaic. In this case Eloi represents the Heb. Elohai = ‘my God.’ For sabachthani the Codex Sinaiticus reads sabaktani, which may be the original reading. It is more correct; but on that very account it may be a gloss. Lama for Aram. [Note: Aramaic.] lema = ‘for what?’ ‘why?’ has many variants in Gr. MSS, as lema, lamma, lima.
In the parallel passage in Mat_27:46 we find Eli, Eli (though Cod. Sin. reads Eloi and B Eloei). Eli is a Heb. word, here, as elsewhere, borrowed in Aramaic. The Aram. [Note: Aramaic.] word for ‘forsake’ is shebaq for which the Heb. equivalent is ‘azabh. In Heb. ‘hast thou forsaken me?’ would be ‘azabhtani. This explains the reading of Codex D [Note: Deuteronomist.] , zaphthanei, which some officious literary scribe substituted for sabachthani, both in Mt. and Mk.
J. T. Marshall.