"Eli eli" at the ninth hour is a prayer? (Mark 15:34)
Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2018 5:38 am
In Mark 15 and the other two synoptics, after three hours of hanging on the cross and being mocked comes three hours of darkness and then Jesus dies, at the ninth hour, i.e. at three o'clock. And Jesus' death comes upon his loud cry on the cross which is a citation of Ps 22:1: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!"
In Acts 3:1 we are told that "the ninth hour" is "the hour of prayer": "One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon."
Does anyone know if that was a custom at the time? That the ninth hour was the hour for prayer for the Jews (or Christians)? Were there three daily prayers or something like that?
In Heb 5:7 it i said that: "In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission." Perhaps this is a reference to Jesus' citation of Ps 22:1 on the cross as related in the synoptics. Or perhaps (also) his prayer in Gethsemane. Note that Heb 5:7 here says that Jesus was saved from death, which is ironic because Jesus in fact died. If this verse is referring to Jesus' death, then he was saved from death through death. Being saved "from death", then, must surely mean eternal death, or the 'second death', i.e. the opposite of eternal life.
That Jesus' citation of Ps 22:1 could be understood as a prayer is not far fetched, considering that the psalm (Ps 22) belongs to a genre of psalms in which faithful prayers to God and subsequent salvation plays a central role. These psalms can be understood in themselves as prayers, exactly like Jonah's prayer from "Hades". This psalm, Ps 22, in its entirety is about God who saves fra mortal danger at the petition of the sufferer, and it's pretty clear that Mark has the whole psalm in mind throughout his crucifixion scene.
Jesus' cry, "why have you forsaken me", is often understood by Christians as showing, that even Jesus himself experienced a crisis of faith, and that God had abandoned him. And this give even more force to the resurrection, because this promises salvation to the Christians even as they experience a crisis of faith.
But is that the whole story? If this is all Mark wanted to show he could have had Jesus say a number of things, but he makes him cite Ps 22:1. I think it's clear that he wants to place Jesus as the sufferer who speaks in Ps 22 and who is saved because of his prayer. In the psalm the sufferer who has now been saved (v.22 LXX: "from the horns of the unicorns"!) praises God, because "when I cried out (κραζω) he heard me". And this is what Jesus does: "At three o’clock Jesus cried out (κραζω) with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
And clearly God also hears Jesus’ cry on the cross, because it is subsequent to this cry that God kills Jesus off in an act of mercy recognized by the centurion as divine favor. But I don’t think the first verse in Ps 22 (”why have you forsaken me”) is to be understood as a crisis of faith. On the contrary, this kind of psalm is about faithfulness and prayer. So it takes as its point of departure the despair of the sufferer, but the point is that the sufferer is faithful, and therefore God rescues him from death (beautifully phrased in the LXX v.22: ”from the horns of the unicorns!”) upon his faithful prayer.
So I don’t think we are to understand that Jesus has momentarily lost his faith, only that he doesn’t understand the counsels of God, and there’s a big difference. Because it is precisely from faith that Jesus is in fact saved, just as in the psalm and all the other psalms of the same genre. He is not saved from death, though, as in the original meaning of Ps 22, but ironically Jesus is saved by death.
In this way his cry, ”why have you forsaken me”, is to be understood within the frame of faithfulness to God. Even prayer, is we read the whole psalm into it. And that would go well with the idea that Jesus dies in the ninth hour, which is the hour of prayer.
In Acts 3:1 we are told that "the ninth hour" is "the hour of prayer": "One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon."
Does anyone know if that was a custom at the time? That the ninth hour was the hour for prayer for the Jews (or Christians)? Were there three daily prayers or something like that?
In Heb 5:7 it i said that: "In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission." Perhaps this is a reference to Jesus' citation of Ps 22:1 on the cross as related in the synoptics. Or perhaps (also) his prayer in Gethsemane. Note that Heb 5:7 here says that Jesus was saved from death, which is ironic because Jesus in fact died. If this verse is referring to Jesus' death, then he was saved from death through death. Being saved "from death", then, must surely mean eternal death, or the 'second death', i.e. the opposite of eternal life.
That Jesus' citation of Ps 22:1 could be understood as a prayer is not far fetched, considering that the psalm (Ps 22) belongs to a genre of psalms in which faithful prayers to God and subsequent salvation plays a central role. These psalms can be understood in themselves as prayers, exactly like Jonah's prayer from "Hades". This psalm, Ps 22, in its entirety is about God who saves fra mortal danger at the petition of the sufferer, and it's pretty clear that Mark has the whole psalm in mind throughout his crucifixion scene.
Jesus' cry, "why have you forsaken me", is often understood by Christians as showing, that even Jesus himself experienced a crisis of faith, and that God had abandoned him. And this give even more force to the resurrection, because this promises salvation to the Christians even as they experience a crisis of faith.
But is that the whole story? If this is all Mark wanted to show he could have had Jesus say a number of things, but he makes him cite Ps 22:1. I think it's clear that he wants to place Jesus as the sufferer who speaks in Ps 22 and who is saved because of his prayer. In the psalm the sufferer who has now been saved (v.22 LXX: "from the horns of the unicorns"!) praises God, because "when I cried out (κραζω) he heard me". And this is what Jesus does: "At three o’clock Jesus cried out (κραζω) with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
And clearly God also hears Jesus’ cry on the cross, because it is subsequent to this cry that God kills Jesus off in an act of mercy recognized by the centurion as divine favor. But I don’t think the first verse in Ps 22 (”why have you forsaken me”) is to be understood as a crisis of faith. On the contrary, this kind of psalm is about faithfulness and prayer. So it takes as its point of departure the despair of the sufferer, but the point is that the sufferer is faithful, and therefore God rescues him from death (beautifully phrased in the LXX v.22: ”from the horns of the unicorns!”) upon his faithful prayer.
So I don’t think we are to understand that Jesus has momentarily lost his faith, only that he doesn’t understand the counsels of God, and there’s a big difference. Because it is precisely from faith that Jesus is in fact saved, just as in the psalm and all the other psalms of the same genre. He is not saved from death, though, as in the original meaning of Ps 22, but ironically Jesus is saved by death.
In this way his cry, ”why have you forsaken me”, is to be understood within the frame of faithfulness to God. Even prayer, is we read the whole psalm into it. And that would go well with the idea that Jesus dies in the ninth hour, which is the hour of prayer.