Distortion of the text of Luke 23:34 “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

 An unanswered call to God, a contradiction, or a distortion of a sacred text?

-
* A critical problem that places Christians between the anvil of their God’s impotence and the hammer of distortion; This problem is mentioned in the text of Luke 23:34
: “Then Jesus said, ‘ Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do .’ And they divided his garments and cast lots for them.”
The
text in Greek
(Ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἔλεγεν “ Πάτερ, ἄφες αὐτοῖς• οὐ γὰρ οἴδασιν τί ποιοῦσιν .” The problem in the text is Jesus’ call for forgiveness for the Jews
. (“My Father, forgive them, ἄφες Because they They do not know what they are doing) So did God Jesus actually ask forgiveness for those who killed him from the Jews or not? ...; We read from the applied interpretation of the Holy Bible confirming Jesus’ prayer for those who crucified him: (The Lord Jesus asked forgiveness from God the Father for those who crucified him, for the Jewish leaders, the Roman rulers, the soldiers, and the audience. And God answered this prayer by opening a way for salvation even for the killers and crucifiers of Christ ) , so ... in the text there is support for a theological thought to prove that Jesus is a God of love; God Jesus asked forgiveness for the Jews from God the Father; because he loves his killers, so he opened a way for salvation for them; so I wonder if God the Father answered the prayer of God the Son Jesus and forgave the Jews? - Everyone will answer yes ... for everything Jesus asks of the Father is answered; As in John 11:22 "Whatever you ask of God, God will give you" , - and in John 11:41 "And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42And I knew that you always hear me." So when Jesus calls upon "God" the Father "God", He must accept the call and fulfill his request; it is not appropriate for gods not to respond to each other's calls!! ...; *And from here the first problem appeared.... A god whose call is not answered !! If the Lord God responded to Jesus' call to forgive the Jews; So why, fellow Christians, did Jerusalem get destroyed (70 AD)?!! This means that God the Father did not respond to the prayer of God Jesus... and therefore the solution for the copyists was to delete this text ... that is, the text is original but the copyists deleted it from the manuscripts! ...;

This is what was confirmed by the translation of the Jesuit Fathers, page 274:
The text “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do”… is not found in some ancient manuscripts… because the destruction of Jerusalem was a punishment from God to the Jews… and thus the copyists found themselves in a severe predicament… How could Jesus call for forgiveness for the Jews… and then God punish them by destroying Jerusalem??!!

So... God the Father did not respond to God the Son and punished the killers of God by destroying Jerusalem!
...;
*Here another problem appears... the contradiction!!
- In other places in the Bible, Jesus threatened the Jews with woe and the judgment of hell... as in Matthew 23:14-33
“14 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ... 16 Woe to you, blind guides... 25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but inside they are full of extortion and licentiousness... 33 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ... 16 Woe to you, blind guides... 25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but inside they are full of extortion and licentiousness... 33 Serpents, generation of vipers! How can you escape the judgment of hell? .... etc. - Rather, He threatens them with
destruction
in Matthew 23:38
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you... 38 Behold, your house is left to you desolate." History tells us that this destruction occurred, the destruction of the temple, and the dispersion of the Jews after Christ was raised before the eyes of his disciples by the Romans on August 10, 70 AD
,
which according to tradition is the same day that the temple was destroyed in ancient times by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon!
...;
If Jesus is God, how could he contradict himself?

In Luke, he forgives them, and in Matthew, he curses them and threatens them with destruction. In Luke, he curses them because they do not know, and in Matthew, he punishes them!!

How does Jesus say in Luke ,
"Forgive them, for they do not know what they do,"
and then we find that what actually happened was their punishment as in Matthew, "Behold, your house is left to you desolate"?
Did God Jesus contradict Himself? Or did God the Father not respond to the calls of God the Son?
=== ;
* By referring to the manuscripts of the Bible, we found that this text was deleted from many papyri and ancient manuscripts such as (P75, 01C1, B, D*, W, Q, 070, 579, 1241, pc7, a, bC, d, Sy-S, sa, bo, )
,
so Jesus' prayer is not found in Papyrus 75, which is almost the oldest manuscript we have now, and the Vatican manuscript and the Washington manuscript do not have the addition in the text!



And
if a Christian cited its authenticity as evidence for its presence in some manuscripts, such as the Sinaitic and Alexandrian manuscripts...


we ask: Why is it not found in papyri and manuscripts older than the Sinaitic? Such as Papyrus 75, the Vatican, and the Washington manuscript
?!

As long as the text exists in some modern manuscripts and is not present in the old ones, then according to the rules of textual criticism... this text, which is opposed to the oldest and best, is not original and was added by an unknown copyist!!!

Because if an error or distortion appears in a manuscript of the Bible, it continues - due to the lack of original copies - this has led to conflict, distortion and differences between manuscripts and copies of the Bible... to this day!
...;
* So I wonder... what is the reason that made the copyist delete this text?

- The scholar Bruce Metzger says in his book A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, commenting on the text:
(The absence of these words from the conflicting ancient witnesses (Papyrus 75 and Vaticanus Codex, etc.) ... can be explained with difficulty by their deliberate omission by scribes who considered the collapse of Jerusalem as evidence of God’s unforgiveness of the Jews and did not allow Christ’s prayer to appear unanswered )
,
- Bart Ehrman says:
(Now it is clear why some scribes wanted to delete the verse. Is Jesus praying for forgiveness for the Jews? How so?
For the early Christians, there were two problems facing this verse if viewed in this way. First, Christians asked: What makes Jesus pray for forgiveness for the sins of this rebellious people who deliberately rejected God himself? This was a rare thing to imagine for many Christians. Moreover, we say that by the second century many Christians were fully convinced that God had not forgiven the Jews. Because, as I mentioned before, they believed that God allowed the destruction of Jerusalem as a punishment for the Jews for killing Jesus. )
=== ;
* Upon reviewing the critical copies.. we found that most of the critical copies put the text in brackets to indicate its lack of authenticity ; Nestle-Aland, Westcott-Hort, UBS, Samuel Tregelles,
and other critical versions based on the oldest and best manuscripts of the New Testament...
( ΚΑΤΑ ΛΟΥΚΑΝ 23:34 Greek NT: Nestle 1904
[ ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἔλεγεν Πάτερ, ἄφες αὐτοῖς• οὐ γὰρ οἴδασιν τί ποιοῦσιν. ] διαμεριζόμενοι δὲ τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ ἔβαλον λήρους. )

The text is placed in brackets to indicate that it is not original and that it is a later addition!

...;
- And we find Bruce Metzger giving this text a deletion grade of A for his belief that it is not authentic
23.34 omit verse 34a [ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἔλεγεν, Πάτερ, ἄφες αὐτοῖς, οὐ γὰρ οἴδασιν τί ποιοῦσιν.] {A} *And Philip Comfort

says in his book New Testament Text and Translation Commentary in his commentary on this text:
It is easier to explain that the words were not written by Luke but were added later (as early
as the second century-for it is attested to by Hegesippus and the Diatessaron) My guess is that
the words were added to make Jesus the model for Christian martyrs—of offering forgiveness to one's executioners )) ===؛ * Based on this difference between ancient manuscripts... we find that this addition is present in most ancient and modern Arabic and English translations; except that there are versions that put it in brackets to indicate its inauthenticity; such as the common, Sarah and Jesuit translations. - Now ... the Christian has only three options in this text.. 1- This text has been distorted and Jesus did not ask for forgiveness for his killers; rather, he threatened them with destruction as in the text of Matthew! 2- The text is original, but God the Father did not respond to the call of God the Son; and thus Jesus and the Father are not one! 3- Between the text of forgiveness in Luke, which was not fulfilled, and the text of the threat in Matthew, which was fulfilled... there is a contradiction between the two texts that destroys the infallibility of the Holy Book! .....; As for us as Muslims... we do not care much whether the words are original or added; the proof of the difference between the manuscripts and the contradiction between the texts of the Holy Book... is sufficient evidence for every rational person that these words have no infallibility or holiness .