NT Text: Luke 23:46
OT Source(s):
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Direct Quotation
Connection Method(s): Typology (Direct Type, Backward-Looking) + Analogy
Significance: Jesus' final words from the cross — "Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit" (Pater, eis cheiras sou paratithēmai to pneuma mou) — are a direct quotation of Psalm 31:5a (bĕ-yādĕkā ʾapqîd rûḥî, "into your hands I entrust my spirit"), with the added address "Father." Psalm 31 is David's prayer of trust in Yahweh as a personal refuge amid persecution, false accusation, and the threat of death. Jesus cites the psalm from a position of actual death, transforming a prayer of trust-in-crisis into an act of voluntary self-surrender. The addition of "Father" (Pater) is significant: Psalm 31:5 addresses Yahweh generically, but Jesus intensifies the intimacy by addressing God as his Father even in the moment of death. Stephen echoes the same verse at his martyrdom (Acts 7:59), establishing a pattern of Christological citation for the church's dying. The prayer embeds in the death of Jesus the Davidic posture of trusting surrender.