Julio

This one in Luke 23:34 is the most absurd of all.
“Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” KJV.
The International Standard Version violates/alters the standard reading “said” with “kept saying”!
Where did those translators get this weird version?
But Jesus SAID to whom?!
Nevertheless, his prayer is a real shocker!
No other gospel mentions it.
Who heard Jesus “saying” that weird prayer?
There was no disciple nearby [a bunch of cowards who fled in time!], and the women were at a distance,
not wanting to see the naked body of their dear saviour.
But the real matter is: did his “Father in Heaven” forgive those executers & partners in the crime?
If so, God has the MORAL DUTY to forgive everybody else who did not partake in it.
The so-called “Plan of Redemption” was right there irreversibly messed up by that prayer!!…

maryhelena

Spot on!!
But that's the 'way of the Lord'......as the saying goes......
Seriously, though, the gospels cannot be taken literally - otherwise one will really get one big headache trying to make sense out of its contradictions...

Julio

"...the gospels cannot be taken literally..."

Sure.
Neither literally nor allegorically.
Rather make fun of them, for all their lack of honesty and scruples.
All things being equal, Jesus’ Father might have gotten very upset with the Son’s appendix to the original plan of salvation!
But did you notice that John mentions NOTHING in "his" gospel about that cosmic prayer, in spite of fundamentalist theology insisting that he was right there at the foot of the cross with Mary?!…
There you have another hole!

DCHindley

Thus they rightly say, "The Holy Gospel."

DCH

Exciter

My grandmother had a great way of not letting any holes appear in her Bible

Wooster

FTW!
:notworthy::notworthy::notworthy:

dog-on

Happened during the rewrite...

Lilyofthevalley

I haven't studied Greek but it may be that the Greek verb form usually translated 'said' more accurately means 'kept saying'. In English, this of course means a significant shift of meaning. If so, I find this quite interesting actually - as it seems more likely that someone being tortured might repeat such words, perhaps to ward off the pain, rather than just say them once.

(I believe in Acts 2, it says 'such as were saved' but it more accurately means, 'such as were being saved' - perhaps the same kind of grammatic distinction as above - an ongoing process.)

Minimalist

You are far more polite than I, Julio. I'd have said it was full of something completely different.

Julio

Well, exegetical and hermeneutic efforts have a hard time trying to understand the first three verses in Luke, never mind the rest!
It doesn’t make sense that the synoptic gospels are at the throat of each other, as it were, with Luke discrediting the other two!
Ask a [fundamentalist] professional exegete to be absolutely frank and honest to explain what the words “many” means in the first verse, and you’ll see what a lesson in theological stuttering & stammering is all about.