Passage

Luke 23.34

"But Jesus was saying, 'Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.' And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves." (Luke 23:34, NASB95)

Luke 23:34 records the first of Christ's seven cross-sayings: a prayer of forgiveness offered by the crucified for His crucifiers. The verse models the forgiveness Christ taught in the Lord's Prayer (Matt 6:12) and the seventy-times-seven of Matt 18:21-22, and discharges the Isaianic Servant-prediction of intercession for transgressors (Isa 53:12). Stephen's death-prayer at Acts 7:60 self-consciously imitates it. The verse is also one of the most-discussed text-critical questions in the NT: omitted by some early witnesses (𝔓⁷⁵, B, D*, W) and present in others (𝔄, C, D², L, Ψ, lat, syr); NA28 brackets it; most modern English translations retain it on the strength of theological coherence and early patristic citation.

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"32. And there were also two others, malefactors, led with him to be put to death. 33. And when they came unto the place which is called The skull, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left."

"34. And Jesus said, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And parting his garments among them, they cast lots."

"35. And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also scoffed at him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if this is the Christ of God, his chosen. 36. And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, offering him vinegar," (Luke 23:32-36, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"32. There were also others, two criminals, led with him to be put to death. 33. When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified him there with the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left."

"34. Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing." Dividing his garments among them, they cast lots."

"35. The people stood watching. The rulers with them also scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others. Let him save himself, if this is the Christ of God, his chosen one!" 36. The soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar," (Luke 23:32-36, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"32. And there were also two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death. 33. And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left."

"34. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots."

"35. And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. 36. And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar," (Luke 23:32-36, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"32. And there were also others, two evil-doers, with him, to be put to death; 33. and when they came to the place that is called Skull, there they crucified him and the evil-doers, one on the right hand and one on the left."

"34. And Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they have not known what they do;' and parting his garments they cast a lot."

"35. And the people were standing, looking on, and the rulers also were sneering with them, saying, 'Others he saved, let him save himself, if this be the Christ, the choice one of God.' 36. And mocking him also were the soldiers, coming near and offering vinegar to him," (Luke 23:32-36, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Christ, from the cross; the first of seven cross-sayings in the four-Gospel sequence
Audience: the Father (the prayer's direct address); the Roman soldiers and Jewish leaders (the prayer's intercessory referents); the surrounding crowd
Location: Golgotha (Kranion, "The Skull"), just outside the western wall of Jerusalem
Time period: Friday of Passover week, c. AD 30 or AD 33; uttered between the third and ninth hours of the crucifixion

Theological reading

The verb aphes is the aorist active imperative of [[G0863 - aphiemi|aphiēmi]], Christ asks for unilateral, immediate forgiveness on behalf of the very crucifiers who are at that moment driving the nails. The prayer models the forgiveness Christ taught at Matt 6:12 ("forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors") and the seventy-times-seven of Matt 18:21-22, and discharges the Isaianic Servant-prediction: "He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors" (Isa 53:12; Luke 22:37 explicitly cites Isa 53:12 as fulfilled in the Passion).

The grounding clause, "for they know not what they do", does not exonerate the perpetrators (the NT consistently affirms their culpability: Acts 2:23, 36; 3:13-15; 4:10) but identifies the conditions of ignorance that make intercession appropriate. Paul's parallel pattern at 1 Cor 2:8, "none of the rulers of this age understood; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory", develops the same theological move: deep-seated rejection of God's anointed flows from blindness, which intercession answers and Pentecostal proclamation (Acts 2-3) seeks to lift.

Stephen's death-prayer at Acts 7:60 ("Lord, do not hold this sin against them", mē stēsēs autois tautēn tēn hamartian) self-consciously imitates Christ's pattern; Luke's authorship of both Gospel and Acts makes the connection deliberate. The Christ-to-Stephen-to-Christian chain establishes cruciform forgiveness as paradigmatic for Christian martyrdom and persecution-response.

Textual question. The saying is absent from some early manuscripts (𝔓⁷⁵, B, D*, W, Θ, syr-s, cop-sa) and present in others (𝔄, C, D², L, Ψ, f¹, f¹³, 33, Maj, lat, syr-c,p,h, cop-bo). NA28 brackets the verse as doubtful but retains it; the patristic citation is early and broad (Irenaeus Adv. Haer. 3.18.5; Origen; Eusebius), and the saying coheres deeply with Lucan-Stephanic theology. The omission is plausibly explained by post-AD-70 anti-Jewish hostility (some early scribes may have removed the prayer as inconvenient to anti-Jewish polemic); the inclusion is supported by both manuscript breadth and theological fit. Most modern English translations retain the verse, typically with a marginal note flagging the textual question.

Key words

G0863 - aphiemi, aphiēmi, the verb (aorist active imperative aphes); the same lexeme as Matt 6:12, Mark 2:5-7, 1 John 1:9. Christ's cruciform deployment of the same forgiveness vocabulary He had taught.

Theological themes

Cruciform forgiveness, the crucified intercedes for His crucifiers
Servant Song fulfillment, Isa 53:12 intercession-for-transgressors discharged
Ignorance as ground of intercession, not exoneration but pastoral condition
Paradigmatic for martyrdom, Stephen and the Christian tradition imitate
Textual-critical case study, bracketed text retained on theological fit and patristic breadth

Cross-references

Matthew 6.12, the Lord's Prayer forgiveness petition
Matthew 18.21-22, seventy times seven
Acts 7.60, Stephen's death-prayer modeled on this verse
Isaiah 53.12, the Servant who intercedes for transgressors
1 John 1.9, the apostolic forgiveness promise

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.