“After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said ‘I thirst. Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine and put it to his mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘IT IS FINISHED!’ And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit” (Jn 19:28-30).
“It is finished.” Just three words. The message seems simple and clear enough, but there is a depth here in these words that goes far beyond what seems a simple declaration. It is a final statement like no other. First, we recognize that this phrasing is an English language translation from the Greek. The word that is used in the Greek is the verb, tetelestai. To get to a deeper understanding of Jesus’ last word, let’s look at how this word was used in Jesus’ time.
The Greek root of the verb tetelestai is, ‘telew’, which means to finish, to bring to an end, or to complete. Grammatically speaking, when the verb is used in this form ‘tetelestai’, it is being used in the ‘perfect tense’. When this tense for the verb is used it is to indicate that something has been completed in the past but continues into the present. This form of the verb tetelestai was commonly used in three different contexts in Jesus’ time: in business transactions, in the courts, and the military. In each case it had a similar intent but each had a subtle variance of meaning.
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