Luke 23:34
Luke 23:3434Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up His garments by casting lots.
The Watchtower preserves the saying in the NWT 2013 (the 1984 edition used double brackets for textually disputed material; the 2013 retains the prayer in the running text). Where the verse is engaged, JW commentary reads Jesus's prayer as a model of forgiveness directed to the Father — Jesus speaks to Jehovah, asking for forgiveness on behalf of his killers. The prayer is not treated as an instance of Jesus exercising divine forgiveness in his own name.
Pair with . Stephen, dying as the first Christian martyr, deliberately echoes Jesus's last words — but redirected to Jesus. Jesus says "Father, forgive them"; Stephen says "Lord Jesus… do not hold this sin against them." Stephen treats Jesus the way Jesus treats the Father — addressing him in prayer, asking him to forgive sinners, entrusting his spirit to him (compare with ). If Jesus is merely a created being, Stephen committed idolatry with his dying words and Luke recorded it approvingly. The parallel is the strongest Lukan testimony to the apostolic church's worship of Jesus as divine. Pair also with , the Old Testament prayer to Jehovah ("into your hand I commit my spirit") that both Jesus and Stephen quote — Jesus to the Father, Stephen to the Son.