The Greek transliteration Ēli (Ἠλί) represents the Aramaic/Hebrew word 'My God' (אֵלִי, ʾēlî). It appears once in the NT — Matthew 27:46 — as the opening word of Jesus' cry from the cross: 'Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?' ('My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'), quoting Psalm 22:1.
Jesus' cry of Ēli, Ēli from the cross is the most anguished utterance in Scripture. It quotes the opening of Psalm 22, a psalm that moves from desolation to vindication, from 'why have you forsaken me?' (v. 1) to 'he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted' (v. 24). The bystanders misheard or mocked: 'This man is calling Elijah (Ēlian)' — a tragic confusion between Ēli (My God) and Ēlias (Elijah). Matthew preserves the Aramaic form Ēli, while Mark 15:34 records the Hebrew form Elōi (Ελωι). Jesus died with Scripture on his lips, claiming God as 'My God' even in the experience of abandonment.