Matthew 27:47-49 meaning

The parallel gospel accounts of Matthew 27:47 are found in Mark 15:35-36 and John 19:28-29.

In the previous passage, Jesus cried out with a loud voice “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” (Matthew 27:46).

Jesus’s expression was in Aramaic. Aramaic was the common language spoken by 1^st century Jews. It is possible, if not likely, that everything Jesus said on the cross was in Aramaic and Matthew’s Gospel simply translated it without comment. But Matthew included Jesus’s original expression and then translated its meaning because apparently some of the those who were standing there (v 47a) misunderstood what He meant. 

In the previous verse, Matthew correctly interpreted Jesus’s outcry to mean: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46b).

The Aramaic expression “Eli, Eli” means “My God, My God”. But “Eli, Eli” also sounds like a familiar expression or nickname for the Hebrew name, Elijah.

Matthew mentions and addresses this misunderstanding in his narrative when he explains how, after Jesus cried out: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” (Matthew 27:46), that some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, “This man is calling for Elijah” (v 47).  

Before we comment any further about this verse, it is worth acknowledging that it may seem odd for Matthew to interrupt his narrative of the Messiah’s death by taking time to mention and address a seemingly unimportant misunderstanding from a few bystanders. But its inclusion is significant for two reasons.

One reason Matthew wanted to set the record straight about what Jesus said was to refute any false interpretations of this comment from spreading among the Jews. This may have been his main reason for pointing this mistake out—especially because the correct understanding of this statement explicitly linked Jesus’s crucifixion to the prophecies of Psalm 22, which demonstrated how even His rejection, death, and suffering proved that He was the Messiah. Demonstrating Jesus’s Messiahship to the Jews was the main thesis and purpose of Matthew’s Gospel, and he did not want a misunderstanding to undermine an important proof in his argument. 

A second reason his narrative of this misunderstanding is important is that it helps demonstrate the authenticity of his account. By mentioning what at first seems like a relatively minor mistake and going off on an apparent tangent to correct it is exactly the sort of thing a firsthand or personal account would include. It is the sort of thing that would be unlikely to have been made up.

Now back to Matthew’s account of this misunderstanding:

And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, “This man is calling for Elijah (v 47).

The expression, some of those who were standing there, refers to some of the people who were standing around watching Jesus die on the cross. Matthew does not explicitly identify them as being among Jesus’s scoffers or His sympathizers. But it seems that at least one among these some had compassion upon Jesus and gave Him something to drink (v 48).

Some of these bystanders mistook Jesus’s startling cry “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” to be Him calling for the prophet Elijah. Again, the expression “Eli, Eli” can mean “My God, my God” or it could be short for Elijah. Apparently, they did not hear or catch, or they misapplied what Jesus said immediately after this—“lama sabachthani” or “why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

When they heard Jesus say “Eli, Eli” (Matthew 27:46), they began saying among themselves, “This man is calling for Elijah.” They may have thought Jesus was asking Elijah why he had forsaken Him. They seemed to have missed that Jesus was actually calling to God and alluding to Psalm 22 and its Messianic prophecies.

Elijah was a famous prophet in Israel’s history. After a miraculous ministry where he confronted the prophets of Baal and ministered to the widow of Sidon, Elijah was taken up in the whirlwind. Jews had long believed that Elijah would return as a forerunner of the Messiah.  In fact, the final two verses of the Old Testament predict Elijah’s return before the day of the LORD,

“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”
(Malachi 4:5-6)

John the Baptizer served the Elijah-role of being the Messianic forerunner of Jesus (Matthew 3:1-3, 17:10-13). Now some of those standing at the cross, seem to have misunderstood Jesus to be rebuking Elijah for not helping Him, or calling for Elijah to come to His aid as He suffered on the cross.

It seems that it was at this moment on the cross when Jesus said, “I am thirsty” (John 19:28).

To learn more about the prophetic nature of this statement, see The Bible Says article: “Jesus’s Seven Last Words from the Cross—5: A Word of Agony.”

Immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink (v 48).

Perhaps a motive for why one of those standing there immediately ran to give Jesus a drink may have been to give Him a chance to speak more clearly. One of the common tortures of crucifixion was dehydration.

After withering on the cross for six hours and suffering severe blood loss from the Roman scourging, Jesus’s mouth would have doubtlessly been extremely dry. Speaking would have been difficult. By taking a sponge filled with sour wine to give Him a drink, it may have been this individual’s way to encourage and help Jesus, who was on the verge of death, to speak again or clarify what He meant by “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” (Matthew 27:46a).  

John adds: “A jar full of sour wine was standing there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth” (John 19:29).

The reason this one had to put the wine-soaked sponge and put it on a reed could either have been because Jesus was elevated on the cross and that was the only way for the person to give Him a drink or because this individual wanted to avoid coming into contact with Jesus’s bloody body and consequently becoming defiled during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

This drink of sour wine seems to have wetted Jesus’s parched mouth and help Him speak His final two statements before He died. His final two statements from the cross were:

“It is finished!”
(John 19:30)

“Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.”
(Luke 23:46)

The person who ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave Jesus a drink fulfilled a Messianic prophecy from Psalm 69. This psalm speaks of the Messiah’s suffering at the hands of His enemies and His ultimate triumph.

This is a ninth prophetic fulfillment within Matthew’s crucifixion account.

The offering of sour wine fulfills the second prophecy of Psalm 69:21b:

“They also gave me gall for my food
And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”
(Psalm 69:21b)

Vinegar is a type of sour wine. The first line of this prophecy was fulfilled a few hours earlier when the Roman soldiers offered Jesus a drink of gall mixed with wine to help numb the pain of nailing His hands and feet to the cross (Matthew 27:33-34). Jesus refused this intoxicating mixture so that He could have His full faculties for the spiritual war He was fighting on the cross. But the sour wine which Jesus was offered in Matthew 27:48 which He drank (John 19:30a) was apparently different. It was not mixed with gall.    

As this someone was giving Jesus the sponge filled with sour wine to drink, it seems as though the others continued to be under the misimpression that Jesus was calling for Elijah.

But the rest of them said, “Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him” (v 49).

The phrase—the rest of them—refers to those who were standing there besides Jesus’s family and supporters (Matthew 27:55-56). Thinking Jesus was calling for Elijah, they said, either out of curiosity or to further scoff at Jesus, “Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him.”

Elijah did not come save Him from physical death while on the cross because that was not part of God’s plan. God’s plan was for Jesus the Messiah to die on the cross and then be resurrected so that He could save the world from both sin and death (Isaiah 53:11).