Matthew 27:45–56

The Death of Jesus

⁴⁵At noon the whole country was covered with darkness, which lasted for three hours. ^46*At about three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud shout, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why did you abandon me?”

⁴⁷Some of the people standing there heard him and said, “He is calling for Elijah!” ^48*One of them ran up at once, took a sponge, soaked it in cheap wine, put it on the end of a stick, and tried to make him drink it.

⁴⁹But the others said, “Wait, let us see if Elijah is coming to save him!”

⁵⁰Jesus again gave a loud cry and breathed his last.

^51*Then the curtain hanging in the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split apart, ⁵²the graves broke open, and many of God’s people who had died were raised to life. ⁵³They left the graves, and after Jesus rose from death, they went into the Holy City, where many people saw them.

⁵⁴When the army officer and the soldiers with him who were watching Jesus saw the earthquake and everything else that happened, they were terrified and said, “He really was the Son of God!”

^55*There were many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee and helped him. ^56*Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the wife of Zebedee.