Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani - EELS

EELS is practical shorthand for Christ Jesus' last words from the cross at the Mystery of Golgotha on 3 April 33: 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!'

This appears in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:43. There is a lot of discussion around

the slightly different wordings (transliterations, attempts to make a word sound the same in another language) in both these versions as they are not literally the same,
as well the interpretation of the Aramaic (Mark), Hebrew (Matthew), and Greek versions of the text.

.

These words have been << made into >> (see references and discussion below) .. 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?', whereas the words spoken were: 'My Lord, my Lord, how you have glorified me' (the I in humanity), making it spiritual. This phrase had an important meaning from initiation rituals in the ancient Mysteries.

Aspects

At the moment of death, Christ left the body and Jesus remained on the cross with the lower three bodies so it this body that speaks these words (1904-12-30-GA090A,1906-12-02-GA097)
Summary of Rudolf Steiner's coverage on EELS (in the below we compare the 'glorified' vs the 'forsaken' versions)
- note upfront: when reading all the different excerpts separately, they appear to be contradictory. However one can also resolve the dichotomy and put them chronologically so they become complementary with an overall holistic interpretation. This does not mean this interpretation is correct, but it does mean that it may well be so that Rudolf Steiner did not necessarily contradict or corrected himself.
- In what follows we proceed chronologically
  - first, in 1904: the Matthew forsaken version is mentioned without further comments
    - My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? [Matthew 27:46] (1904-12-30-GA090A, with reference to Nordic regions and Sig making his body available to a higher being .. at the moment of death, Christ has left the body, and the body of Jesus of Nazareth utters those words.
  - in 1906-1907: in 1906 the glorified version is given, saying these words in the original text can easily be changed, and in 1907 is added that this other forsaken version is wrong
    - the two versions are given for the explanation of 1906-02-03-GA097 Q&A, but saying that "These words given in the original text (glorified) are easily changed to the other version" (forsaken)
    - the glorified version is given in 1906-12-02-GA097 and also in 1907-04-01-GA096 ànd in 1907-04-25-GA068A, where is added explicitly that the other/later translation is wrong
  - in 1910:
    - in 1910-01-15-GA117A is now added that "the evangelists rendered Jesus' words from the cross in different ways is due to their different initiations" .. and that they also 'heard' it differently (possibly due to their different clairvoyance). Literal quote: "they saw and understood different phases of it .. " and as "the ceremony of initiation was not the same in different temples, they often gave the same events in different ways and in different words. So they also gave different versions of Jesus' last words on the cross." This lecture also explains why the Gospel of John is the most reliable. See further notes on this lecture below possibly giving additional explanation.
    - in 1910-09-12-GA123 is then stated explicitly that it is the writer of the Matthew Gospel (with his attention fixed on the physical body) that changed these words to: ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!’
- Conclusion:
  - Rudolf Steiner (a) confirms there are two versions in the different Gospels, (b) is consistent is saying the 'glorified' version is the correct one, and (c) qualifies the 'forsaken' one as erroneous but also gives an explanation where it comes from (in context of differences and contradictions in the gospels due to the different initiatory backgrounds of the evangelists). Thereby correcting that it would have been a deliberate falsification by the church fathers, as Skinner and Blavatsky stated in 1875 and 1888. Note Daskalos doesn't even mention the 'glorified' and sticks to the 'forsaken' version by Matthew.
This phrase is part of the 'seven last words of Jesus', the last statements on the cross, including:
- Luke 23:33-34 -- "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
- John 19:29-30 -- "It is finished."

Illustrations

Lecture coverage and references

Below follow statements by Skinner, Blavatsky, Steiner and ‘Abdu’l-Baha' in the period 1875-1907.

Other RSL references are in the document by Peter Terry below.

1888 - H.P. Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine

quoting J.R. Skinner in 1875

As Peter Terry (see references below) points out, James Ralston Skinner pointed out in 1875 that the true meaning was not 'why hast thy forsaken me', but ' how though have glorified me'. In The Secret Doctrine (1888), H.P. Blavatsky quoted Skinner verbatim with the comment

For ten years or more, sat the revisers (?) of the Bible, a most imposing and solemn array of the learned of the land, the greatest Hebrew and Greek scholars of England, purporting to correct the mistakes and blunders, the sins of omission and of commission of their less learned predecessors, the translators of the Bible.
Are we going to be told that none of them saw the glaring difference between the Hebrew words in Psalm xxii., Azabbvtha-ni , and sabachthani in Matthew; that they were not aware of the deliberate falsification?
For “falsification” it was. And if we are asked the reason why the early Church Fathers resorted to it, the answer is plain: Because the Sacramental words belonged in their true rendering to Pagan temple rites.
They were pronounced after the terrible trials of Initiation, and were still fresh in the memory of some of the “Fathers” when the Gospel of Matthew was edited into the Greek language. Because, finally, many of the Hierophants of the Mysteries, and many more of the Initiates were still living in those days, and the sentence rendered in its true words would class Jesus directly with the simple Initiates.
The words “My God, my Sun, thou hast poured thy radiance upon me?” were the final words that concluded the thanksgiving prayer of the Initiate, “the Son and the glorified Elect of the Sun.”

In Egypt we find to this day carvings and paintings that represent the rite. The candidate is between two divine sponsors; one “Osiris-Sun” with the head of a hawk, representing life, the other Mercury - the ibis-headed, psychopompic genius, who guides the Souls after death to their new abode, Hades - standing for the death of the physical body, figuratively. Both are shown pouring the “stream of life,” the water of purification, on the head of the Initiate, the two streams of which, interlacing, form a cross. The better to conceal the truth, this basso-relievo has also been explained as a “Pagan presentment of a Christian truth.”

1888 - Blavatsky - The Crucifixion of Man

And similarly Blavatsky commented in The Crucifixion of Man (1888)

The now dogmatically accepted words, so dramatic for being uttered at the crucial hour, are of a later date than generally supposed. Verse 46 in-the xxviith chapter of Matthew stands now distorted by the unscrupulous editors of the Greek texts of the Evangel. Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani—-never meant “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” but meant, indeed, originally, the reverse. They are the Sacramental words used at the final initiation in old Egypt, as elsewhere, during the Mystery of the putting to death of Chrêstos in the mortal body with its animal passions, and the resurrection of the Spiritual Man as an enlightened Christos in a frame now purified (the “second birth” of Paul, the “twice-born” or the Initiates of the Brahmans, etc., etc.). These words were addressed to the Initiate’s “Higher Self,” the Divine Spirit in him (let it be called Christ, Buddha, Chrishna, or by whatever name), at the moment when the rays of the morning Sun poured forth on the entranced body of the candidate and were supposed to recall him to life, or his new rebirth. They were addressed to the Spiritual Sun within, not to a Sun without, and ought to read, had they not been distorted for dogmatic purposes: “MY GOD, MY GOD, HOW THOU DOST GLORIFY ME!

1904-12-30-GA090A

In the Sixth epoch it will be possible for a Man to place his body at the disposal of a sublime being, as did Jesus of Nazareth when Christianity was founded. At the time of the founding of Christianity it was still necessary for an advanced individuality to sacrifice his own ‘ I ’ and send it into the astral realm, in order that the Logos might dwell in the body.
This is an act upon which light is shed by the last words on the Cross. What other meaning could these words contain: “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” These words give expression to the mystical fact then consummated.
At the moment of Christ's death, the Divine Being had departed from the body, and it is the body of Jesus of Nazareth that utters these words — a body so highly developed that it could voice the reality. And so these words give expression to an event of untold significance. All this is represented by the myrrh. Myrrh is the symbol of sacrifice, of death, the sacrifice of the earthly in order that the Higher may come to life.

alternative translation:

It is a great sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth that he exchanges his I with the I of the Second Logos. This occurs for a very specific reason.
Only when the sixth cultural age has been reached will the possibility gradually arise for the human being, the human body, to be ready from early childhood to receive something like the Christ principle.
Only in the sixth epoch will humanity be so fully mature that the bodies do not need to be prepared and prepared for years, but are capable of receiving the Christ principle from the very beginning. In the fourth cultural age of the fifth epoch, the body still had to be prepared for thirty years.
This is just as it was in the Nordic regions, where Sig's body was prepared so that Sig could and did make his body available to a higher being.
In the sixth epoch, it will be possible for man to make his body available to such a high being as Jesus did when founding Christianity. When Christianity was founded, it was still necessary for a chela to sacrifice his I, to mortify it, to send it up into the astral realm so that the Logos could dwell in the body.
This is something that is also illuminated by the last moment on the cross, when you consider the last words: Who else could understand the words:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? [Matthew 27:46]
You will find in this an expression of the fact that it has taken place. At the moment when Christ dies, God has left the body, and the body of Jesus of Nazareth utters those words - the body that was so highly developed that it could express this fact. Therefore, an incredibly great event is expressed in these words. And all this is expressed in the myrrh, which is the symbol of sacrifice, of self-denial, of the sacrifice of the earthly in order to bring forth the higher.

1906-02-03-GA097 Q&A

When pupils woke from their initiation, the words 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!' would be wrested from their lips, they mean 'My God, my God, how you have transfigured me!' These words given in the original text are easily changed to the other version, which is: 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'

1906-11-05-GA094

in context of ancient initiation and temple sleep, see: Mystery School tradition#1906-11-05-GA094

1906-12-02-GA097

No one has ever had sight of God. The once-born son who was within the father of the world, he has come to be the leader in this beholding. Every initiation into the mysteries of the spirit pointed to this coming of the Christ. This initiation was given in the yoga sleep, the Orphic sleep, the Hermes sleep. When the initiate woke again in his body, when he was able to hear and speak again, using physical senses, he said the words which in Hebrew were 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!' meaning 'my God, my God, how you have raised me up high!' That was the initiation known in ancient Judaism. The initiate would be in the higher worlds for three days and experience the whole progress of future human evolution, what was to come for him in human evolution. In the perceptions he had during the three days, the future stages for humanity were not as a rule seen in abstract form but every stage was represented by an individual. The initiate would perceive twelve people. They represented the twelve stages of inner development. Powers of soul thus appeared before him in the form of human individuals.

and

It has become possible because with the flowing of Christ's blood the whole of humanity became a communal self. At that time the self flowed from the blood of Jesus' wounds.
Only the three bodies remained on the cross and were later given new life by the risen Christ.

At the moment when the Christ left the body, the three bodies were so strong that they were themselves able to say the words which the transfigured human being would speak after his initiation: 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!'

1907-04-01-GA096

This Easter feast was the preparation for what then happened on the physical plane. In contemplating Christ's death we learn of death being overcome on the physical plane, and egoistical blood being overcome as the blood flowed from his wounds. We also come to perceive the great prospect that lies ahead as the words are once again heard coming from the cross, out of an awareness of what the future holds:
'The earth will have reached the goal of a great brotherliness, of becoming spiritual, overcoming everything that could drag the human spirit down.'
Those who have gone through this with the Christ will be able to gather around him once they leave earth evolution behind and rise to a higher form of evolution. And perceiving that the perfecting of the earth has been accomplished, Christ Jesus will once again be able to call out words he once called out on the cross: 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!' that is My Lord, my Lord, how you have glorified the I in humanity, making it spiritual.' That is the meaning of these words.
There is a later translation which is wrong, taking up the lines from the psalm.
But the proper translation of the words is the one you have now heard.
Those are the words that express the Mystery of Golgotha: 'My God, my God, how greatly you have glorified me, made me spiritual.'

These words reveal to us how the spirit wrests itself free of the body. The Mystery of the Son reveals to us how at that time, the inner visionary eye of the world's redeemer looked ahead to the end of the earth's perfecting and put the great goal of humanity in words, speaking of overcoming all differences and the founding of utter human love.

and

When he woke again in his body and looked at his physical surroundings, a sound would come to his lips that must wrest itself from the soul of its own accord when alter wandering through the world of the spirit for three and a half days the soul found itself back in the physical world again. The soul was then aware that the I had become a citizen of higher worlds, that it had been in those worlds and could now speak to people about its experience in those worlds. Speaking of the world of the spirit from experience, he had become a herald of the spirit in the physical world, a missionary of the spirit. And this comes to expression in the words: 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani which means: 'Oh God, my God, you have indeed glorified me!' These were the words one would have been able to hear from every individual who had been initiated in this way.

1907-04-25-GA068A

The physical life of Christ Jesus, as described in the four Gospels, really did unfold as the life of a disciple in the ancient mystery schools; we see in the four Gospels only the various forms of the initiation canon as it was established by the different schools of initiation. There are small deviations, but one whole, one single stream runs through all four. The Jesus Christ, the only Son of Man, presents this mighty sentence in the physical life, living it in the physical body: that life conquers death! What the initiate experiences in his etheric body, Jesus Christ experiences on the physical plane.
The symbol has become outer reality, has become an historical fact. In these three days, in which the Christ is dead, spiritual science sees carried out onto the physical plane that which the initiate experienced in the depths of the crypts.
When he then awakened to life in his physical body again, when he, having returned from the spiritual worlds, was able to bear witness to their reality, when he had become a proclaimer of the spiritual worlds, then, in the exuberance of these high and holy feelings, the words that Christ Jesus also spoke on Golgotha broke free from his soul: “My God, my God, how have you glorified me!”
“Eli, eli, lama...” (Matthew 27:46, cf. Psalm 22:1; Mark 15:34).
The word “forsaken” is not to be used; it is an incorrect translation.
These words, “My God, My God, how have You glorified Me!” were the words of each one when he awoke from this three-day sleep, when he had experienced that life in the spirit conquers death.

1907 - Abdu’l-Baha Interesting as well is the statement by Abdu’l-Baha (1844-1921) in 1907:

.. Christ never suffered upon the cross. From the time the crucifixion began His soul was in Heaven and He felt nothing but the Divine Presence.
He did not say, speaking in Aramaic: "O God; O God why hast Thou forsaken me?"
But this word Sabacthani is similar in sound to another which means glorify, and he actually murmured, "O God! O God! How thou dost glorify me.

1910-01-15-GA117A

lecture in Stockholm (Sweden); see also Christ in the etheric#1910-01-12-GA117A and 1910-01-15-GA117A. These appear to be the very first lectures where Rudolf Steiner spoke about the Second Coming. Note Sweden (Oslo) is also where the Fifth Gospel lectures were held.

It has been discussed that the spiritual atmosphere in the Nordic were more advantageous to Clairvoyant research of akashic records

The Gospel of John is therefore not only an historical account of the event in Palestine, but also a description of the seven stages of the Christian initiation. Those who have undergone this do not need external evidence of the historical event, because they already know it from the Akasha Chronicle. This is also the path from the historical to the mystical Christ.

With the help of these documents, it is no longer difficult for us to resolve the apparent contradictions in the Gospels. The men who wrote them describe the events in Palestine according to what they each knew from their own initiation.
That is why, as far as the inner experiences are concerned, the Gospel written by the man initiated by the Christ Himself is the most important.
The other evangelists were initiated in different mystery temples. So when they saw the same great drama, which had been presented in an exemplary way in the initiation temples, unfold as a real event in physical life at Golgotha, they knew that the great initiator of humanity had come and that they could now describe the initiation drama and apply it to Christ Jesus. According as they turned their attention to one or another feature of his life, they saw and understood different phases of it.
But the ceremony of initiation was not the same in different temples, so they often gave the same events in different ways and in different words.
So they also gave different versions of Jesus' last words on the cross.
[Matthew and Mark]
In Matthew and Mark, they are as follows: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!” - My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[Elohai, Elohai lama sabachthani! - My gods, why have you left me, why have you forsaken me?]
These words are not an initiation formula in the strict sense in Matthew and Mark.
[a new additional explanation]
After the initiate in the Egyptian or Pythagorean mysteries had been placed in a coffin or stretched out on a cross by hierophants, he lived in the spiritual world for three and a half days. When he was resurrected, everything he had experienced was clearly present in his consciousness. It was a deeply moving moment for him when all these experiences arose from within him like powerful, living images. At that moment, words such as “My God, how you have glorified me!” escaped his lips.
In the Nordic mysteries, in which the initiate had, as it were, extinguished his own soul life and merged with the cosmos, another exclamation escaped him, such as: “My God, why have you forsaken me!” The experiences he then had in the spiritual world gave him the answer to this question. These words are therefore not an exclamation of pain, but a repetition of the initiation ceremony and an expression of the overwhelming impressions that the initiate has received in the spiritual world.
[The two initiations were to merge: the extinguishing of one's own inner self, merging into the great cosmos, was compressed into the words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The answer was given to him by the spiritual world outside.
The fact that the evangelists rendered Jesus' words from the cross in different ways is due to their different initiations. They saw the Golgotha mystery as an act in the initiation drama, and each of them had focused their attention on words and expressions that corresponded to what they were accustomed to seeing and hearing on that occasion.
That is why Mark, who was initiated into the northern mysteries, was able to hear the words: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
[Luke]
While Luke, the therapist, who had developed a particular ability for great self-mastery as an instrument of the healing powers of the cosmos, naturally had to hear different words. In the temples where the therapists were trained, it was understood that the initiate's own inner self must first be silenced if the spiritual powers of the cosmos were to be able to work through him, and the success of his work was based precisely on his ability to completely forget himself and to be only a tool for higher powers. That is why Luke heard the words from the cross: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” For these words were the words of the initiated therapist in the last act of initiation - and which Luke was accustomed to hearing.

Overcoming the powers of thought - John.

Overcoming the powers of feeling - Luke.

Training of the magical powers of the will - Mark.

Harmony - Matthew.

1910-09-12-GA123

As he had done from the beginning, the writer of the Matthew Gospel was bound to give his chief attention to the physical body in the case of Christ Jesus too. ..
.. Let us now picture the writer of the Matthew Gospel turning his gaze to the dying Jesus on the Cross. His gaze had always been directed to the aspect most important to him, to what he had taken as his starting-point. At the Crucifixion the spiritual forsakes the physical body and therewith also the divine forces that had been taken over into it. The writer of the Matthew Gospel directs his gaze to the separation of the inner nature of Christ Jesus from this divine element in His physical constitution.
The words that always rang out in the ancient Mysteries when the spiritual nature of a man emerged from the physical body in order to have vision in the spiritual world, were these: ‘My God, my God, how thou hast glorified me!’
The writer of the Matthew Gospel, with his attention fixed on the physical body, changes these words to: ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!’ Thou has gone from me, hast abandoned me (XXVII, 46).
The chief attention of the writer of the Matthew Gospel has been fixed upon this aspect.
The writer of the Mark Gospel describes the coming of the outer forces and powers of the Sun Aura, ho the Sun Aura, the body of the Sun Being, unites with the etheric body. The etheric body was in the same situation as our etheric body is during sleep. As in our own case the outer forces pass out with us when we sleep, so did they at the physical death of Jesus. Hence the same words are found in the Gospel of Mark (XV, 34).

Daskalos

in his book on 'The Christ - his life on Earth and his teaching', just quotes the Matthew version with the 'forsaken' meaning.

Discussion

Related pages

References and further reading

Peter Terry: 'The Last Words of Jesus' (2015) and appendix with notes