Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Verse 6 of Psalm 22 is a verse that rewards the kind of study David himself would have recognized: the kind that goes beneath the surface translation into the biology of the Hebrew word.
I am a tola'at and not a man. The tola'at is the coccus ilicis, a small insect native to the Middle East that produces the scarlet dye the OT calls tola'at shani. Its life cycle is this: the female climbs a tree. She attaches herself permanently to the bark: she will not leave. She lays her eggs under her own body, using her body as a shelter and warmth source for the eggs that will hatch. And in dying, in the act of giving her life for her young. She produces the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree. Three days later, her dead body turns white and falls from the tree.
The connections run through the entire OT. The tabernacle's scarlet thread, tola'at shani, woven through every curtain and priestly garment. The scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2:18). The cedar wood and tola'at shani and hyssop used in the cleansing of skin disease and the purification offerings (Leviticus 14:4; Numbers 19:6). And Isaiah 1:18: though your sins are like tola'at, scarlet. They shall be as white as snow.
What David says in Psalm 22:6 is: I am the crimson worm. I am the thing that climbs the tree and dies on it, whose death produces the scarlet of atonement, who turns white and falls after three days. The most theologically compressed single verse in the Passion Psalm, and it is not the cry of dereliction or the pierced hands or the lots cast for garments. It is the seven Hebrew words that say I am a tola'at.
Thread 3 is the King whose death is the source of the crimson that makes the people white. Thread 6 is the life given so that the young can live, the ultimate substitutionary union of the one who dies so that those sheltered under his body can come through.
Tola'at, the crimson worm, is the single most concentrated biological Passion type in the Hebrew canon; its life cycle, death, and legacy are a complete picture of substitutionary atonement embedded in the biology of a Hebrew dye-producing insect.
תּוֹלַעַת (tola'at): the crimson worm: tola'at from the root talah, to hang; the coccus ilicis worm that climbs a tree and permanently attaches itself to it; the female lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection; in dying, her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs scarlet; three days later the body turns white like snow and falls from the tree; the crimson dye is tola'at shani, the scarlet of the worm, used throughout the tabernacle's curtains, the priests' garments, and the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19); Isaiah 1:18 uses tola'at as the word for the sin that God will make white as snow
threads t3 · t6 · see Isaiah 1:18 · Leviticus 14:4-6 · Hebrews 9:19
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
Psalm 22 is the Passion Psalm. The cry from the cross, Eli Eli lama sabachthani, is the opening verse of Psalm 22 quoted by the dying Jesus in his own mother tongue (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is not merely expressing anguish. He is directing those present, and every subsequent reader, to read this psalm in this moment.
What the psalm then describes is what the cross looks like from the inside. The mocking (verses 7-8): all who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusted in the LORD, let the LORD rescue him. These are almost verbatim the words of Matthew 27:43. The physical description (verse 14): I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; melted within my breast. The thirst (verse 15): my strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue sticks to my jaws. The garments (verse 18): they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots, quoted by John 19:24 as fulfilled at the foot of the cross.
And verse 6: I am a tola'at and no man. The crimson worm, the coccus ilicis, whose biology is a concentrated Passion type: climbing the tree, fixing herself to it, spreading her arms, dying in the act of giving life to the next generation, her body producing the crimson fluid that permanently marks the tree, then turning white and falling. The tabernacle's scarlet thread (Exodus 25-27), the scarlet cord in Rahab's window (Joshua 2), the scarlet wool of the cleansing rituals (Leviticus 14; Numbers 19): all connected to this same tola'at root. David identifies himself with the worm that dies to give life and is marked by its own crimson.
But the psalm does not end in death. Verses 22-31 turn toward praise and cosmic scope. The psalmist will tell his brethren about God, quoted by Hebrews 2:12 as Christ speaking to his brothers after the resurrection. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD: the universal reach of the Passion's consequence. A people yet to be born shall be told: ki asah, for he has done it. Thread 3 is the installed King whose suffering is the path to the universal inheritance of Psalm 2. Thread 7 is the all the ends of the earth that shall turn: the universal scope of the invitation that the cross produces.
My God my God why hast thou forsaken me: the cry that opens the Passion Psalm and the cry from the cross; written one thousand years before the crucifixion, describing details no human imagination could have constructed: the pierced hands and feet, the lots cast for garments, the mocking bystanders quoting scripture back at the sufferer.
אָנֹכִי תוֹלַעַת וְלֹא אִישׁ (anokhi tola'at ve-lo ish): I am a worm and no man: tola'at (the crimson worm, the scarlet worm, tola'at from the same root as tola, the scarlet dye; specifically the coccus ilicis, a worm that attaches itself to a tree, dies, and in dying produces a crimson dye used for the tabernacle scarlet thread; Chuck Missler: the female tola'at climbs a tree, attaches herself, lays her eggs under her body for warmth and protection, and when she dies her body produces a crimson fluid that permanently stains the tree and the eggs; three days later the body turns white and falls; the biological life cycle of the crimson worm is the most concentrated single Passion type in the Hebrew canon) · כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי (ka'ari yadai ve-raglai): they pierced my hands and my feet: the translation is disputed; the MT reads ka'ari (like a lion) but the DSS (4QPsa) reads ka'aru (they dug/pierced); the LXX and most ancient versions read 'they pierced'; the internal context (lots cast for garments, mocking bystanders, the sufferer unable to move) strongly supports the piercing reading; the verse describes crucifixion with precision one thousand years before the Romans used it
threads t1 · t3 · t4 · t7 · see Matthew 27:46 · Hebrews 2:12 · John 19:23-24
