{My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?} (Thee mou,
thee mou, hina ti me egkatelipes;). Matthew first transliterates
the Aramaic, according to the Vatican manuscript (B), the words
used by Jesus: _El(9369), el(9369), lema sabachthanei_; Some of the MSS.
give the transliteration of these words from  Ps 22:1  in the
Hebrew (_Eli, Eli, lama Zaphthanei_). This is the only one of the
seven sayings of Christ on the Cross given by Mark and Matthew.
The other six occur in Luke and John. This is the only sentence
of any length in Aramaic preserved in Matthew, though he has
Aramaic words like amen, corban, mammon, pascha, raca, Satan,
Golgotha. The so-called Gospel of Peter preserves this saying in
a Docetic (Cerinthian) form: "My power, my power, thou hast
forsaken me!" The Cerinthian Gnostics held that the _aeon_ Christ
came on the man Jesus at his baptism and left him here on the
Cross so that only the man Jesus died. Nothing from Jesus so well
illustrates the depth of his suffering of soul as he felt himself
regarded as sin though sinless ( 2Co 5:21 ).  Joh 3:16  comes to
our relief here as we see the Son of God bearing the sin of the
world. This cry of desolation comes at the close of the three
hours of darkness.