When we think of Jesus, forgiveness is usually one of the first topics to come to mind.
Forgiveness is so closely tied to Jesus that any understanding of forgiveness outside the person of Jesus Christ does not make sense. To put it another way, if Jesus were not who he said he was, you and I would still be searching for something that could reconcile us to God—we would be searching forever never finding that reconciliation. Therefore, it is no surprise that we like to find places within the New Testament where forgiveness and Jesus are intimately bound together.
We do not have to think for long before verses like Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:13, 1 John 2:1, and Mark 2:10-11 to come to mind. If there is one message to be received from the New Testament writings it is that forgiveness has been offered in God’s son. And it’s difficult to find a verse or two hitting that idea more on the head than:
“But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” (Mk 2:10, LEB).
It makes perfect sense then that Luke 23:34 would be one of those forgiveness verses we would like to hold securely.
In the larger story of Luke 23 we find the trial and crucifixion of Jesus and then, ultimately, the words spoken in verse 34:
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Lk 23:34, LEB)
And the church resoundingly responds, “Amen…and forgive us, too, for what we do not know we are doing!”
And, we do say, “amen,” to the truth that Jesus forgives those who put him to death. The tricky thing, though, with this particular verse is that there is good reason to believe Luke never wrote it. There is pretty strong evidence showing a lack of representation in the earliest discovered manuscripts of the Gospel of Luke.
It is no surprise, then, that as we consult the most up to date critical Greek New Testaments (Nestle-Aland 28thEdition and UBS 5th Edition)—as I happen to have open in front of me right now—verse 34 is double bracketed in the texts of both of those editions. A quick look to the definitions in the critical apparatus explains that texts with double brackets means that “the enclosed words, generally of some length, are known not to be a part of the original text. These texts derive from a very early stage of the tradition, and have often played a significant role in the history of the church.” (NA28) The UBS5 states basically the same thing, saying that although he wording of verse 34 is certain, it is well known that the verse does not exist in the early manuscripts.
It must be said, for clarity’s sake, what these critical editions of the New Testament are not saying. They are not saying that the scholars who have worked on these editions over the years do not like Luke 23:34. There is no bias here. There is, instead, a strict adherence to the discovered manuscript evidence at hand. And that discovered evidence shows a lack of representation for this particular statement from Jesus on the cross.
As a way to account for this lack of evidence, many have argued that the reason this statement from Jesus is not found in the earliest manuscripts is because it was purposefully removed due to an ancient and intense, antisemitic bias. The argument goes something like this: The earliest readers of this gospel did not like the idea of Jesus forgiving the Jewish leaders—those who were bent on doing anything they could to stop him—so they simply took that statement out. The Jews didn’t like Jesus, so we have made sure he didn’t extend forgiveness to them. On the face of it, it is makes sense; however, I am not sure it holds up even within the text itself.
If Luke really did record Jesus saying this then it would seem as though he was extending forgiveness (in this case) not to the Jewish leaders, but to the Roman soldiers. “And when they came (ἦλθον) to the place that is called “The Skull,” there they crucified (ἐσταύρωσαν) him…” (Lk 23:33a). Here, the they in question is not the Jewish leaders but the Romans soldiers who actually put Jesus on the cross. And then we have the verse in question: “But Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them (αὐτοῖς)…” (Lk 23:34a) It seems to me that the them and they in verse 34 are reaching back to verse 33 where, again, it is not the Jewish leaders in mind, but the Roman soldiers.
What is more likely to me is that since Luke wrote both this gospel and Acts, a scribe (or scribes) years later who was copying this gospel and Acts did not like the idea of Stephen acting seemingly more forgiving than Jesus. In Acts 7, after Stephen had given his defense, those who heard him drove him out of the city and began to stone him. And then we find these words from Stephen recorded by Luke: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” (Ac 7:60a) It does not take much imagination to think of some scribe thinking, “Surely Jesus must say something on par with this from Stephen!” And, so, we have, although quite early, the addition of Luke 23:34.
What all this tells us, I think, is that the “forgiveness prayer” by Jesus—though, extremely consistent with the person of Jesus—does not look like it really came from the original author of Luke’s gospel.
Does this mean confidence in this gospel has been shaken? Absolutely not! The beautiful thing is that we are able to track the evidence in these situations, which does nothing more than bring us closer to the original words.
Does this mean we will have to adjust what we once believed about the words in the Gospel of Luke? Perhaps. But, again, this is not cause for concern, because it is always a blessing to be able to change our minds in accordance with the truth, rather than holding onto something untrue just because it is comfortable to us.
We want to know what Luke wrote, not what a later scribe thought Luke should have written. And, from the evidence we have, Luke did not write Luke 23:34.