“It is finished”
When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, 'It is finished.' And bowing His head, He yielded up His spirit. (John 19:30 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A dying man's last gasp: 'it's over.'
The cultural key
One word in Greek: tetelestai, the perfect tense of 'to complete,' meaning a thing accomplished with results that stand. It is a word of completion, not defeat: John has framed the whole scene with it ('Jesus, knowing that all was now finished,' 19:28), and the mission language runs back to 'my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work' (4:34). Papyrus receipts from the period use the same verb stamped across debts: paid. (How strongly that commercial echo was intended is a judgment call, hence the tag; the victory sense is secure either way.) Note also the grammar of his death: he 'gave up' his spirit, active voice, as promised ('no one takes my life from me,' 10:18).
Recovered meaning
Not 'I am finished' but 'it is finished': the assignment complete, the account settled, announced by the worker himself before he dismisses his own spirit. A verdict, not a whimper.