Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
About
Christology
Israel/Palestine
Publications
KermitZarley.com
Archives
Categories
- Angels
- Blog Description
- Book Reviews
- Christian Living
  - Unconditional Love?
- Christianity
- Christology
  - Deity of Christ?
  - Holy Spirit
  - Incarnation?
  - My Change
  - Trinity?
- Church History
- Current Events
- War on Terrorism
- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
- Eschatology
- Ezekiel 38-39
- Last Empire
- Primitive Weapons
- Film Reviews
- God
- Golf
  - Billy Graham
  - Karsten Solheim
  - Lee Trevino
  - Major Championship Winners
  - Masters
  - Purpose
  - Ryder Cup
- Gospel Harmonization
- Interview
- Islam
- Jesus
- Literary Announcements
- Monotheism
- My Books
  - The Restitution of Jesus Christ
- Old Testament
- Politics
- Society of Biblical Literature
- The Bible
- Trinitarianism
- Uncategorized
FREE NEWSLETTER

Home
Progressive Christian
Religion News
Did Jesus Ask God to Forgive Those Who Killed Him?

Did Jesus Ask God to Forgive Those Who Killed Him?

Last updated on: November 21, 2018 at 9:49 pm by Kermit Zarley

Did Jesus Ask God to Forgive Those Who Killed Him? 2018-11-21T21:49:26-07:00 Kermit Zarley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

When Jesus hung on the cross he said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23.34 NRSV). Nearly all Christians have believed that Jesus herein was asking God to forgive everyone involved in his condemnation and execution, thus regardless of any admission of guilt, and some would add Judas in his betrayal of Jesus. But this interpretation fails to understand these words of Jesus in Luke’s context.

According to the four New Testament gospels, this saying of Jesus–“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing”–is the first of seven brief sayings he made while hanging on the cross. This particular saying about forgiveness is recorded only by Luke. Interestingly, there is significant omission of this saying in the manuscript evidence. The two prominent Greek New Testaments show that there is some doubt about the historical authenticity of this text. The fourth edition of the United Bible Society’s Greek New Testament includes it in brackets and gives it a C-rating in its rating scale of A to D. The C-rating means “there is a considerable degree of doubt” as to whether or not this text is genuine. Nestle’s 27th edition of the Greek New Testament includes it in brackets as well. That is why the following English Bible versions include this text but place it in brackets and/or add a footnote informing of its absence in some Greek manuscripts: NIV, RSV, NRSV, NEB, NASB, ESV.

I’m no expert on textual criticism; yet I accept this saying as genuine. I think some scribal copyists likely deleted it since they thought, like most people do, that this text means Jesus asked God to forgive everyone involved in his death, and they rightly concluded that that didn’t make sense biblically. And they may have thought such a prayer was incompatible with subsequent history, which makes it look like God didn’t answer Jesus’ prayer. Indeed, Israel revolted twice, causing the Romans to destroy the temple at Jerusalem a generation later, in CE 70, and that led to the dissolution of the nation of Israel fifty-five years later, in CE 135.

The interpretation that Jesus asked the Father to forgive everyone responsible for his death is contrary to many things in the Bible.

First, God requiring people to repent of their sins committed against him is a basic principle of his justice and thus his forgiveness.

Second, only hours before Jesus was crucified he told Roman Governor Pilate, “the one who handed me over to you,” referring especially to Caiaphas the high priest if not also the entire Sanhedrin who voted against Jesus, “is guilty of a greater sin” (Jn 19.11). In saying this, Jesus meant that Caiaphas and Pilate were guilty of the condemnation and impending death of Jesus, but Caiaphas was more guilty than Pilate. Why would Jesus say this if he was soon going to ask God to forgive both of them?

Third, all three synoptists report that soon after Jesus arrived in Jerusalem for Passion Week he taught a parable that angered the Jewish religious authorities. Mark records it as follows in Mk 12.1-9:

Then he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the wine press, and built a watch-tower; then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. 2When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the vineyard. 3But they seized him, and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. 4And again he sent another slave to them; this one they beat over the head and insulted. 5Then he sent another, and that one they killed. And so it was with many others; some they beat, and others they killed. 6He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. 9What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.

In crafting this parable, Jesus probably drew upon Isaiah 5. Matthew records it but has Jesus asking, “when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” (Matt. 21.40). The people answered, “He will put those wrtches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time” (v. 41). Matthew then relates Jesus explained, “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom” (v. 43).

So, according to Matthew Jesus meant that the vineyard owner was God the Father, the vineyard was the kingdom given to Israel, the owner’s son was Jesus, and the tenants were the religious rulers at Jerusalem. Thus, Jesus was predicting that the religious rulers would get him killed, and because of it God would destroy them, take the kingdom from Israel, and give it to the church.

Jesus was not original in predicting this. As we might expect, Moses had predicted it earlier in the Torah. Since Israel’s idolatry had made God jealous, Moses said on behalf of God, “My anger will be kindled against them in that day. I will forsake them and hide my face from them;… So I will make them jealous with what is no people, provoke them with a foolish nation,” which is the church (Deut 31.17; 32.21).

Fourth, during Passion Week, Matthew relates that Jesus pronounced seven woes of judgment upon Israel’s scribes and Pharisees and then said, “Truly I tell you, all this will come upon this generation” (Matt 23.36). Then he added, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you, desolate” (vv. 37-38). Jesus seems to imply that judgment will come upon Israel, especially Jerusalem, within a generation.

Apparently, soon after that Jesus took his disciples up the Mount of Olives. As the disciples marveled at the beauty of the temple buildings below, Jesus said, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down” (Mark 13.2; cf. Matt. 24.2; Luke 21.6). If Jesus died in CE 30, as most scholars think, the Romans destroyed the temple exactly forty years later, in CE 70. After that, Jews lost their nation in CE 135 and the Diaspora followed. For many centuries thereafter, Christians rightly alleged that all of it was God’s judgment for the Jews’ treatment of Jesus.

Following the WWII Holocaust, many scholars no longer assessed Jews who witnessed the condemnation and crucifixion of Jesus as culpable, but only their Sanhedrin leaders. And some said not even them. But this shift in thinking is contrary to the New Testament as the following reveal: (1) tribal elders were representatives of the people and members of the Sanhedrin, (2) the crowd demanded that Pilate crucify Jesus (Matt. 27.20-21; Mark 15.11-15; 23.18-25), (3) the Apostle Peter’s sermons in Acts are strong indictments against most Jews who so attended, which many implicitly admitted and believed what Peter preached.

Fifth, weeks later, at the temple in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, Peter preached to various crowds of Jews. When he did he was empowered by the Holy Spirit of God. He accused them of being guilty of Jesus’ death and exhorted them to repent of it (Ac 2.23, 36, 38; cf. 3.13-15, 19; 7.51-52). Peter telling people to repent of killing Jesus indicates God had not forgiven them. Here is what Peter preached mostly to large crowds, but sometimes to Sanhedrin religious authorities who condemned Jesus and got him crucified:

“this man,… you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law,” i.e., Gentiles (Ac 2.23)
“this Jesus whom you crucified” (v. 36)
“You Israelites,… Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate” (Ac 3.12-13)
“you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you” (v. 14)
“you killed the Author of life” (v. 15)
“Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified” (Ac 4.10)
“Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree” (5.30)

Sixth, Stephen, the first Christian martyr, preached right before he was stoned to death, saying, “You stiff-necked people uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do…. They killed those who foretold the Coming of the Righteous One [Jesus], and now you have become his betrayers and murderers” (Ac 7.51-52). Wow, what an indictment!

Lest we suspect that Stephen was not exercising righteous anger in saying that and thus not in tune with God, Luke the author adds, “But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’” (vv. 55-56).

But how could Peter and Stephen so accuse the Jewish crowds of guilt for Jesus’ death? We can see why they accused the religious leaders, since the synoptic gospels are so clear that the Sanhedrin–the council of seventy religious leaders at Jerusalem–with Caiaphas as its high priest, condemned Jesus as a blasphemer worthy of death, took him to Pilate, and pressured Pilate to execute Jesus (Mark 15.14-15; Luke 23.4, 14, 22; John 18.38, 19.4, 6, 12, 15). But why also condemn the people? What did they do?

Elders were older leaders of tribes, and many of them were members of the Sanhedrin (Mt 26.57; 27.1; Mk 14.53; 15.1; Lk 22.66). Plus, Matthew reports, “Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed” (Mt 27.20).

Matthew also informs that “Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning” (Mt 27.24). Roman governors, such as Pilate, had to be careful that they did not allow riots or else they would be held accountable by Caesar.

Furthermore, Matthew says Pilate then performed a custom of exonerating himself of guilt. He “took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.’ Then the people as a whole answered, ‘His blood be on us and on our children!’ So he released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified” (Mt 27.24-26). Many contemporary New Testament scholars are so opposed to this text that they think it is historically unauthentic. But they have no good reason for so concluding other than that only Matthew reports it.

Seventh, after Jesus was arrested and condemned to die, Luke reports that the Roman soldiers led Jesus and two criminals to Golgotha. Then he says they, that is, the soldiers, “crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they cast lots to divide his clothing” (Lk 23.33-34). In quoting this saying of Jesus, many Christians often fail to ponder the meaning of the last clause, and some omit quoting it. By doing so, they take this saying of Jesus out of its context.

The Gospel of John provides more detail by adding, “When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier” (Jn 19.23), and then they cast lots for them.

So, understanding the context of Luke 23.34, Luke means that Jesus prayed for God to forgive only those four soldiers who were doing their job. They are the ones who did not know what they were doing. They were Gentiles, not Jews. Thus, it is doubtful that they knew much about the Jews’ religion or their scriptures.

On the other hand, the Sanhedrin knew quite well what it was doing. This religious council consisted of the tribal elders who were representatives of the people, the scribes who were experts about the Law, and the chief priests, with the high priest as its leader. And the multitudes knew pretty well what they were doing in calling for Barabbas to be given to them and for Jesus to be crucified. Yet they wrongly allowed the chief priests and elders to persuade them to do so (Matt. 27.20; Mark 15.11).

So, it should be concluded that Jesus did not ask God to forgive all those responsible for his death, but only the soldiers who nailed him to the cross. For, they were only following orders and therefore did not know what they were doing.

Previous Post

May 17, 2014

Do You Know the Doctrine of the Trinity Was Not Established at Nicaea, in 325 A.D.?

Next Post

May 28, 2014 Did the Jews Accuse Jesus of Claiming to Be “God” or “a God”?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Angels Billy Graham Blog Description Book Reviews Christian Living Christianity Christology Church History Current Events Deity of Christ? Disarmament Eschatology Evangelicalism Ezekiel 38-39 Film Reviews God Golf Gospel Harmonization Health History Holy Spirit Incarnation? Interview Islam Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Jesus Last Empire Literary Announcements Major Championship Winners Masters Monotheism My Books New Testament Old Testament Politics Primitive Weapons Ryder Cup Science Society of Biblical Literature The Bible The Restitution of Jesus Christ Trinitarianism Trinity? Uncategorized Unconditional Love? War on Terrorism

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who asked Jesus, "What is truth?"

Select your answer to see how you score.

Nicodemus Pilate Caiaphas Herod

Books by This Author Books by Kermit Zarley Blog

See All Titles »