Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them” on probation
Whether Luke originally included the prayer beginning “Father, forgive them” is uncertain: some witnesses retain it and others omit it. The APB prints the prayer with low confidence in its textual decision.
The APB text at this verse
The manuscripts, editions, and versions
The committee record at this verse
The APB is translated by a committee of language models that works blind. The translators are never told they are translating the Bible, never given a book name or a verse number, and never shown the witnesses listed above. Where the manuscripts disagree, the choice between readings is made before translation by the same kind of translator working the same way: it sees the competing readings and the witnesses by age and class, but never a reference or a manuscript name. There are 14,877 such places. For APB 4.0 every one was decided again in October 2026. GPT-6.1 Sol decided every one first. Claude Fable 5.1, from another model family, decided 2,483 of them second, including every place where the first translator left the base text. A departure from the base text needs both translators to agree and the first to be at least 0.8 confident. There is no third translator, so the base text stands when the two disagree. APB 4.0 is translated over those decisions. Whatever was done at this verse was done on the language and the evidence alone, and the record is public.
“The base text reads ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἔλεγεν· πάτερ, ἄφες αὐτοῖς· οὐ γὰρ οἴδασιν τί ποιοῦσιν. The copies also carry the omission [greek majuscule; greek papyrus; early greek manuscript tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The two readers disagreed: the first chose the other wording and the second kept the base text. A departure needs both, so the base text stands. The early copies are divided and lean toward absence, but a motive for removal exists. The committee keeps the default with low confidence.”
“The base text reads (nothing). The copies also carry κλήρους. [greek majuscule; early greek manuscript tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The broader attestation and plausible clarification favor the default omission.”
“The base text reads ὁ δὲ … ποιοῦσιν. The copies also carry the omission [greek majuscule; greek papyrus; early greek manuscript tradition]; the committee kept the base text. Both readers preferred the other wording, but the first reader's confidence was under the committee's floor of 0.8, so the base text stands.”
“The base text reads κλήρους. The copies also carry κλῆρον [greek majuscule; greek papyrus; early greek manuscript tradition; later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The two readers disagreed: the first chose the other wording and the second kept the base text. A departure needs both, so the base text stands. External weight is with κλῆρον, internal weight with the less familiar plural.”
The APB 4.0 committee retained the prayer, and its printed text includes Jesus' request for forgiveness. Its note states: "The committee keeps the default with low confidence." GPT-6.1 Sol (OpenAI) was the first translator; Claude Fable 5.1 (Anthropic) was the second. The decision notes give differing accounts of their judgments: one reports disagreement, while another reports that both preferred omission but the first translator's confidence fell below the required threshold. Both notes record retention of the base text.
The argument for each reading
If the prayer is original
The case for retaining the prayer begins with its presence across the tradition. Tregelles, NA28, and the Byzantine text keep the sentence. Westcott-Hort double-brackets it, marking doubt while retaining it in the text. This gives the prayer a substantial place in the transmission of Luke 23:34.
The committee's decision also recognizes a possible motive for removal, though it does not explain that motive. Absence could therefore reflect removal as well as a narrative that never contained the prayer. If the prayer is original, Jesus explicitly asks the Father to forgive those whose actions accompany his crucifixion. The uncertainty concerns whether those words belonged to this scene from the beginning.
If it entered later
The case for the shorter reading rests on the prayer's absence from Papyrus 75, Vaticanus, Bezae and others. Their agreement forms a broad early alliance. The committee's note likewise says that the early copies are divided and lean toward absence. That gives the omission substantial weight even though several editions retain the sentence.
If the prayer entered later, it added an explicit request for forgiveness to the crucifixion narrative. Without it, the account proceeds from the crucifixion to the division of Jesus' clothing without reporting this speech. The early absence supports taking that possibility seriously, but it does not establish how or why the prayer entered copies that contain it.
The witnesses do not settle whether the prayer was removed from some copies or added to others. The committee mentions a motive for removal without explaining it, and its notes differ about the translators' preferences. The textual decision remains uncertain. The variant changes whether this scene records Jesus asking for forgiveness. Both readings retain the crucifixion narrative, and omission by itself makes no claim that Jesus refused forgiveness. A doctrine of forgiveness does not rest on this passage alone.
Related entries
Witness readings for critical editions are quoted from the SBLGNT apparatus (CC BY 4.0); Hebrew text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex (Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible). Readings of ancient manuscripts and versions are cited from the sources linked above.