What Does Luke 23:34 Mean in the King James?

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

Luke 23:34 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

Forgiveness here is release asked for people who are still unable to see the harm they are doing.

THE MEANING

This verse lets you see the violence plainly: people are doing harm while failing to perceive what they do. Release is asked for them inside that unawareness. The act is not made harmless; the prayer places release alongside the truth of what they are doing.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that forgiveness can begin only after a person recognizes the harm they cause is unsettled here: the request is voiced while that recognition is absent.

THE ROOT

ἄφες

aphes

GROWS FROM

ἵημι

hiēmi

send, let go

“forgive” in this verse is aphes. This word family holds forgiveness together with letting go and release. Here, release is asked for people who cannot perceive their harm, joining forgiveness to blindness without calling the violence harmless.

ALSO GROWS

aphiēmi: release, let go, forgive

ἀφίημι

This is the verb family behind the request; its sense of letting go carries forgiveness as release.

aphesis: release, remission

ἄφεσις

This noun names release elsewhere as deliverance and liberty, widening the sense of what forgiveness can hold.

THE PATTERN

Release names both sending away what is carried and letting go of the debt held against someone.

And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

Leviticus 16:22 · KJVThe goat carries the people’s crookedness away as it is released into the wilderness.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Matthew 6:12 · KJVForgiveness is framed as release of debts, received and extended in one sentence.

And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

Hebrews 9:22 · KJVThe word rendered “remission” belongs to the same Greek family as this request for forgiveness, tying release to what is cleared.

THE THREAD

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

Luke 4:18 · KJV

The word translated “forgive” here belongs to the same Greek family as “deliverance” and “liberty” in this announcement. That shared language opens forgiveness as release from what binds, reaching beyond an inward verdict.

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