Luke 23:46

Luke 23:46, in plain English

With a loud voice, Jesus cries out, 'Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit.' And with those words of trust, He breathes His last. His final breath is an act of faith.

Why it's here

Jesus dies as He lived — trusting His Father completely. His last words are not despair but surrender, not defeat but faith.

Who's speaking

Jesus speaks His final words with strength and trust, showing that even death itself is something He faces in relationship with His Father.

Where it sits in the story

His last words aren't a scream of pain or a cry of abandonment. They're a prayer of trust: 'Father, I place Myself in Your hands.' Jesus faces death the same way He faced everything in life — with complete confidence in His Father's love and care.

The scholarly reading

Jesus cries phōnē megalē (with a loud voice): 'Pater, eis cheiras sou paratithemai to pneuma mou' (Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit), quoting Psalm 31:5. The loud cry indicates a voluntary surrender of life, not the gradual exhaustion typical of crucifixion.

Language and setting

Luke's choice of Psalm 31:5 — a psalm of trust — differs from Mark/Matthew's Psalm 22:1 ('My God, why have You forsaken Me?'). Luke presents Jesus dying with confident trust in the Father, not abandonment. The verb exepneusen (breathed His last) indicates the moment of death.

Voice

Jesus speaks His final words from the cross — a prayer of trust and voluntary self-surrender to the Father, quoting a psalm of confidence.

Significance

Jesus' final words are not a cry of despair but a prayer of trust. With a loud voice — showing strength, not weakness — He commits His spirit to His Father's hands. He does not die because crucifixion takes His life but because He chooses to give it.

44It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over all the land until the ninth hour.

45The sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn down the middle.

46Then Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit.” And when He had said this, He breathed His last.

47When the centurion saw what had happened, he gave glory to God, saying, “Surely this was a righteous man.”

48And when all the people who had gathered for this spectacle saw what had happened, they returned home beating their breasts.

Read all of Luke 23 — Pilate finds no fault. Herod finds entertainment. The crowd demands blood. And on a cross between two criminals, Jesus forgives.