They Know Not

We can hear this line without flinching because we have decided in advance who them refers to. Soldiers, mostly, following orders at a distance from the decision, so the sentence covers them nicely and stops well short of us.

Two honest objections stand in the way. The first is about the text itself: this sentence is missing from several of the earliest manuscripts of Luke, and some modern Bibles print it in brackets or note the doubt at the foot of the page. Better to know that now than to meet it later. Luke's second volume then has Stephen dying with the same shape of sentence in his mouth, kneeling under the stones while a young man named Saul minds the coats: Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Whatever the manuscripts settle, a prayer of that shape was known in the church early, and known to have come from him.

The second objection is heavier. If they know not what they do, what is there to forgive? A defence and a pardon cannot both be required. Peter answers that in public, in the same city, weeks later, addressing the crowd that had shouted for this: I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. He grants the ignorance in as many words. Then his very next move is Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. The ignorance was the reason an offer could still be made, and the offer had to be taken.

Say it over us as well, since we have stood in that crowd more often than we admit, doing real damage while entirely sure of ourselves, using not knowing as a way of never finding out. Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. Keep us from hearing it as an excuse issued. Let it be the last thing said about us before we were asked to turn round, and let us turn round. Amen.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 289 is Every Hair Numbered (Luke 12:7).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two