The Penitent Thief and the Contradiction with Christian Dogma

One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:39–43, NRSVUE)

For most Christians, the story of the thief on the cross is a source of comfort—salvation at the last minute, a divine loophole for the desperate and dying, a promise that no matter how badly you’ve lived, if you just reach for Jesus at the eleventh hour, you’re good to go. But dig beneath the surface, and the theology here starts to unravel a little.

Let’s talk doctrine for a second. In both Catholic and Protestant camps, traditional theology stretching all the way back to the Apostle Paul has always portrayed the resurrection as the pivotal event that grants salvation. Paul is absolutely explicit: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17, NRSVUE). In other words, according to foundational Christian doctrine, the actual business of sin being forgiven and eternal life being granted hinges entirely on the resurrection.

First, as is well known, the crucifixion took place three days before the resurrection. This brings up a couple of interesting issues. First, it seems to imply that Jesus actually went from the cross to paradise after his death—“today you will be with me in Paradise”—which is not how most Christian doctrine portrays those three days. Many Christians teach that during his death, Jesus descended to the dead or “preached to the spirits in prison” (see 1 Peter 3:19), offering salvation to the righteous who had died before his coming. Yet, if Jesus was with the thief in paradise that very day, how could he also be spending those three days in hades, as some traditions claim?

Second, if the thief accompanied Jesus to paradise that very day, it means the thief entered heaven prior to the resurrection—directly contradicting the core tenet of Christian theology that salvation is only possible through the completed work of Christ: his death, burial, and resurrection. The notion that someone could be granted access to paradise before the resurrection, and before any confession of faith in the resurrection itself, violates the scriptural framework laid out in verses like Romans 10:9: “because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (NRSVUE).

So how do the other gospels handle this story? Let's look at the actual text.

Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads... In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him, saying... “He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to; for he said, ‘I am God’s Son.’” The bandits who were crucified with him also taunted him in the same way. (Matthew 27:38, 41–44, NRSVUE)

With him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left... Those who were crucified with him also taunted him. (Mark 15:27, 32, NRSVUE)

John’s Gospel, meanwhile, is almost silent: “There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them” (John 19:18, NRSVUE). No dialogue. No penitent thief. No promise of paradise.

In both Matthew and Mark, both criminals mock Jesus—there is no moment of repentance, no last-minute confession, and certainly no assurance of salvation. Luke alone gives us the story of the penitent thief, which stands in direct contradiction to the synoptic parallels. John’s omission, in turn, is conspicuous and perhaps intentional, underscoring the absence of any redemptive interaction with the criminals.

What emerges is not a harmonious doctrinal blueprint, but a tangle of conflicting accounts and theological headaches. The story of the thief on the cross, for all its sentimental value, ends up raising more questions than it answers—about the timing and mechanism of salvation, the role of the resurrection, and the reliability of the gospel narratives themselves.

That brings me to this question…

We know that the flesh of Jesus was dead on the cross. All mainstream Christian doctrine has always taught that Jesus truly died, his body was buried, and that his actual, physical body was raised on the third day (setting aside, for now, the Gnostics, who represent a doctrinal deviation rather than the established norm).

If that’s true, then consider this: Many Christians believe that, after his death, Jesus “preached to the dead in hades” while his body lay lifeless in the tomb. Simultaneously, according to Luke’s gospel, he was apparently also in paradise with the penitent thief. This raises an awkward question—if Jesus’s body was accounted for, physically dead and entombed, what exactly was it that went to hades, and what exactly was it that went to paradise?

The standard answer in much of Christian thought is that every human has a soul—a kind of conscious essence—that survives bodily death and travels on to its next destination, whether paradise or torment. But did Jesus, the mortal, flesh-and-blood man, also possess an immortal soul, just like the rest of us?

If, as tradition claims, every human is endowed with this immortal soul—the seat of mind and personality—and if Jesus was “fully human” as well as “fully God,” wouldn’t he also need a soul in order to serve as a true sacrifice for humanity? Otherwise, if he lacked the ordinary equipment of humanity, the sacrifice would be something other than human—a kind of supernatural exception, a demigod, not a man. It’s just food for thought, but it is something that is suggested by the text and the teaching of the church. Once again, it doesn't add up.

Works Cited

The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition Bible. Luke 23:39–43; Matthew 27:38, 41–44; Mark 15:27, 32; John 19:18; 1 Corinthians 15:17; Romans 10:9; 1 Peter 3:19.