Bible Synapse

What were Jesus’ last words on the cross?

Hard question · The death and resurrection of Jesus · raised by 4 of the lists sceptics circulate

Different details of one event
See the passages joined in the interactive map

The passages

Matthew 27:46–50

At the ninth hour Jesus cried “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”; after the vinegar was offered he “cried again with a loud voice” and died.

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.

Mark 15:34–37

At the ninth hour came the cry of forsakenness; then, after the vinegar, “Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost”.

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? And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias. And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down. And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.

Luke 23:46

Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit”, and died.

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.

John 19:30

After receiving the vinegar Jesus said “It is finished”, bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

The objection

Matthew and Mark report Jesus’ cry “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”; Luke gives his last words as “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit”; John as “It is finished”. Critics ask which of these really were his last words.

The answer

Only Luke and John claim to give the words Jesus spoke as he died, and they fit together in sequence. Matthew and Mark do not present the cry of forsakenness as his last words. Both place it at the ninth hour and then tell of vinegar offered on a sponge and of a further loud cry before he died (Matthew 27:46–50; Mark 15:34–37). They do not say what that final cry was.

Luke does: “when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). John fills in what came just before: Jesus said “I thirst”, received the vinegar, and said “It is finished” (John 19:28–30). Put together, the order is: the cry “My God, my God”; ‘I thirst’ and the vinegar; ‘It is finished’; and then, with a loud voice, ‘Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit’, after which he bowed his head and died. Each Gospel records the sayings that serve its purpose, and none says that the words it reports were the only ones, or that nothing followed them.

Other answers Christians give

‘It is finished’ as the loud cry

Some take ‘It is finished’ (a single word in Greek, tetelestai) to be the loud cry that Matthew and Mark mention, followed at once by the commendation of his spirit that Luke records. Either way the two sayings belong together at the moment of death, with Luke’s the last.

From the classic commentators

And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice,.... A second time; for at the first loud cry, he uttered these words, "Eli, Eli, lama, sabachthani"; and at the second what followsJohn Gill, Exposition of the Bible, on Luke 23 (1746–1763)

Sources

Further reading

Raised by: Shabir Ally, 101 Clear Contradictions in the Bible, Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus, Interrupted (2009), Infidels.org (Jim Meritt’s list), The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible. Only the verse references come from these lists.

Checked 2026-10-22. All hard questions