Penitent thief

The Penitent Thief, also known as the Good Thief, Grateful Thief or the Thief on the Cross, is one of two unnamed thieves in Luke's account of the crucifixion of Jesus in the New Testament. The Gospel of Luke describes him asking Jesus to "remember him" when Jesus arrives at his kingdom. The other, as the impenitent thief, challenges Jesus to save himself to prove that he is the Messiah.

Saint Dismas the Good Thief
Painting of Saint Dismas circa 1460
First Saint, Penitent Thief, Good Thief, The Good Thief on the Cross
Bornc. 18 AD
Galilee, Israel
Diedc. 30-33 AD
Golgotha Hill outside Jerusalem, Israel
Resting placeMass Grave, Golgotha Hill, Jerusalem
Venerated inEastern Orthodox Church
Catholic Church
Canonizedc. 30-33 AD, Golgotha Hill outside Jerusalem, Israel by Jesus Christ [1]
Major shrineChurch of Saint Dismas the Good Thief, Dannemora, New York, United States
Feast25 March (Roman Catholic)
Good Friday (Eastern Orthodox)
Attributes
Wearing a loincloth and either holding his cross or being crucified; sometimes depicted in Paradise.
PatronagePrisoners (especially condemned)
Funeral directors
Repentant thieves
Merizo, Guam
San Dimas, Mexico

He is officially venerated in the Catholic Church. The Roman Martyrology places his commemoration on 25 March, together with the Feast of the Annunciation, because of the ancient Christian tradition[2] that Christ (and the penitent thief) were crucified and died exactly on the anniversary of Christ's incarnation.

He is given the name Dismas in the Gospel of Nicodemus and is traditionally known in Catholicism as Saint Dismas [3] (sometimes Dysmas; in Spanish and Portuguese, Dimas). Other traditions have bestowed other names:

Gospel of Luke

Narrative

Two men were crucified at the same time as Jesus, one on his right and one on his left (Matthew 27:38, Mark 15:27–28,32, Luke 23:33, John 19:18), which the Gospel of Mark interprets as fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 53:12. According to the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, respectively, both of the thieves mocked Jesus (Matthew 27:44, Mark 15:32); Luke, however, mentions that:

39 Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us."

40 The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, "Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? 41 And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal." 42 Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

43 He replied to him, "Amen I say to you today you will be with me in Paradise." 23:39–43

The Russian Orthodox icon of The Good Thief in Paradise (Moscow school, c. 1560)

"Amen ... today ... in paradise"
Main article: Paradise

The phrase translated "Amen I say to you today you will be in paradise" in Luke 23:43 ("Ἀμήν σοι λέγω σήμερον μετ’ ἐμοῦ ἔσῃ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ."[8]) is disputed in a minority of versions and commentaries. The Greek manuscripts are without punctuation, so attribution of the adverb "today" to the verb "be", as "Amen I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise" (the majority view), or the verb "say", as "Amen I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise" (the minority view), is dependent on analysis of word order conventions in Koine Greek. The majority of ancient Bible translations also follow the majority view, with only the Aramaic language Curetonian Gospels offering significant testimony to the minority view.[9] As a result, some prayers recognize the good thief as the only person confirmed as a saint—that is, a person known to be in Paradise after death—by the Bible, and by Jesus himself. Thomas Aquinas wrote:

The words of The Lord (This day ... in paradise) must therefore be understood not of an earthly or corporeal paradise, but of that spiritual paradise in which all may be, said to be, who are in the enjoyment of the divine glory. Hence to place, the thief went up with Christ to heaven, that he might be with Christ, as it was said to him: "Thou shalt be with Me in Paradise"; but as to reward, he was in Paradise, for he there tasted and enjoyed the divinity of Christ, together with the other saints.[10][11][12]

Christian traditions

Unnamed

Only the Gospel of Luke describes one of the thieves as penitent, and that gospel does not name him.

Augustine of Hippo does not name the thief, but wonders if he might not have been baptized at some point.[13]

According to tradition, the Good Thief was crucified to Jesus' right and the other thief was crucified to his left. For this reason, depictions of the crucifixion of Jesus often show Jesus' head inclined to his right, showing his acceptance of the Good Thief. In the Russian Orthodox Church, both crucifixes and crosses are usually made with three bars: the top one, representing the titulus (the inscription that Pontius Pilate wrote and was nailed above Jesus' head); the longer crossbar on which Jesus' hands were nailed; and a slanted bar at the bottom representing the footrest to which Jesus' feet were nailed. The footrest is slanted, pointing up towards the Good Thief, and pointing down towards the other.

"Christ and the Thief" by Nikolai Ge

According to John Chrysostom, the thief dwelt in the desert and robbed or murdered anyone unlucky enough to cross his path. According to Pope Gregory I, he "was guilty of blood, even his brother's blood" (fratricide).[10][11][12]

Named

"Dismas"

Luke's unnamed penitent thief was later assigned the name Dismas in the Gospel of Nicodemus, portions of which may be dated to the fourth century. The name "Dismas" was adapted from a Greek word meaning "sunset" or "death".[3] The other thief's name is given as Gestas. In Syriac Infancy Gospel's Life of the Good Thief (Histoire Du Bon Larron French 1868, English 1882), Augustine of Hippo said, the thief said to Jesus, the child: "O most blessed of children, if ever a time should come when I shall crave Thy Mercy, remember me and forget not what has passed this day."[10][11][12]

Anne Catherine Emmerich saw the Holy Family "exhausted and helpless"; according to Augustine of Hippo and Peter Damian, the Holy Family met Dismas, in these circumstances.[14] Pope Theophilus of Alexandria (385–412) wrote a Homily on the Crucifixion and the Good Thief, which is a classic of Coptic literature.

"Demas"

In Coptic Orthodoxy, he is named Demas.[4] This is the name given to him in the Narrative of Joseph of Arimathea.[5]

"Titus"

The apocryphal Syriac Infancy Gospel calls the two thieves Titus and Dumachus, and adds a tale about how Titus (the good one) prevented the other thieves in his company from robbing Mary and Joseph during their flight into Egypt.

"Rakh"

In the Russian tradition, the Good Thief's name is "Rakh" (Russian: Рах).

Sainthood

The Catholic Church remembers the Good Thief on 25 March. In the Roman Martyrology, the following entry is given: "Commemoration of the holy thief in Jerusalem who confessed to Christ and canonized him by Jesus himself [15] on the cross at that moment and merited to hear from him: 'Today you will be with me in Paradise.'" A number of towns, including San Dimas, California, are named after him. Also, parish churches are named after him, such as the Church of the Good Thief in Kingston, Ontario, Canada—built by convicts at nearby Kingston Penitentiary, Saint Dismas Church in Waukegan, Illinois, the Old Catholic Parish of St Dismas in Coseley and the Church of St. Dismas, the Good Thief, a Catholic church at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York.

The Eastern Orthodox Church remembers him on Good Friday, along with the crucifixion. The Synaxarion offers this couplet in his honor:

Eden's locked gates the Thief has opened wide,
By putting in the key, "Remember me."

He is commemorated in a traditional Eastern Orthodox prayer said before receiving the eucharist: "I will not speak of Thy Mystery to Thine enemies, neither like Judas will I give Thee a kiss; but like the thief will I confess Thee: Remember me, O Lord in Thy Kingdom."[16]

Art
An icon showing Christ (center) bringing Dismas (left) into Paradise: At the right are the Gates of Paradise, guarded by a seraph (Solovetsky Monastery, 17th century).

In medieval art, St Dismas is often depicted as accompanying Jesus in the Harrowing of Hell as related in 1 Peter 3:19–20 and the Apostles' Creed (though neither text mentions the thief).

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, one of the hymns of Good Friday is entitled, "The Good Thief" (or "The Wise Thief", Church Slavonic: "Razboinika blagorazumnago"), and speaks of how Christ granted Dismas Paradise.[17] Several compositions of this hymn[18] are used in the Russian Orthodox Church and form one of the highlights of the Matins service on Good Friday.

In Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, the main characters Vladimir and Estragon briefly discuss the inconsistencies between the Four Evangelists' accounts of the penitent and impenitent thieves. Vladimir concludes that since only Luke says that one of the two was saved, "then the two of them must have been damned [...] why believe him rather than the others?"[19]

The thief features in Christian popular music, as in Christian rock band Third Day's 1995 song "Thief", and the name of the Christian rock band Dizmas. The thief also is the narrator in Sydney Carter's controversial song "Friday Morning".[20]

Portrayed by Stelio Savante in the award winning Good Friday film Once We Were Slaves directed by Dallas Jenkins [21]

St. Dismas is central to the early plot of the video game Uncharted 4: A Thief's End in which treasure hunter Nathan Drake uses a St. Dismas idol to aid in his search for pirate treasure.

Dismas is the name of one of two starting characters in the video game Darkest Dungeon. He is also referred to as a rogue, thief, and highwayman in the in-game descriptions.

In the romantic comedy caper movie "Fitzwilly" (1967), butler mastermind Claude Fitzwilliam (Dick Van Dyke) and his larcenous staff operate St. Dismas Thrift Shoppe in Philadelphia, a fictional charity where they send and store their stolen loot.

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See also

References
  1. http://www.saintdismas.org/dismas.html
  2. Holweck, Frederick George (1907). "Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  3. Lawrence Cunningham, A brief history of saints (2005), page 32.
  4. Gabra, Gawdat (2009). The A to Z of the Coptic Church. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. p. 120. ISBN 9780810870574.
  5. Ehrman, Bart; Plese, Zlatko (2011). The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 582. ISBN 9780199732104. a man named demas.
  6. Metzger, Bruce M.; Ehrman, Bart D. (2005). The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 270. ISBN 978-019-516667-5.
  7. Renate Gerstenlauer, The Rakh Icon: Discovery of its True Identity, Legat Verlag, 2009 (ISBN 978-3932942358). Cited at "The Repentant Thief Who?". Icons and their interpretation. 17 December 2011. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  8. SBL Greek New Testament. Cited according to https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+23%3A43&version=SBLGNT
  9. Metzger, Bruce M. (2006). A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament. Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-59856-164-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  10. The Life of The Good Thief, Msgr. Gaume, Loreto Publications, 1868 2003.
  11. Catholic Family News, April 2006.
  12. Christian Order, April 2007.
  13. Stanley E. Porter, Anthony R. Cross Dimensions of baptism: biblical and theological studies 2002 Page 264 "It is interesting to notice, in this connection, that in his Retractions, Augustine wondered whether the thief might not in fact have been baptized at some earlier point (2.18)."
  14. The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the Visions of Ven. Anne Catherine Emmerich, TAN Books, 1970.(No.2229)/(No.0107).
  15. Clark, John (2015-04-03). "Canonized from the Cross: How St Dismas Shows it's Never Too Late..." Seton Magazine. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
  16. "Common Prayers - Before and after Holy Communion". oca.org.
  17. The text of the hymn (translated into English): "The Wise Thief didst Thou make worthy of Paradise in a single moment, O Lord. By the wood of thy Cross illumine me as well, and save me"
  18. One of the most notable versions of the hymn is Pavel Chesnokov's Razboinika blagorazumnago (The Wise Thief)
  19. Beckett, Samuel. The Complete Dramatic Works. Faber & Faber. p. 15.
  20. Sydney Carter, obituary Daily Telegraph, March 16, 2004
  21. https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/article/Stelio-Savante-Receives-Award-of-Merit-for-ONCE-WE-WERE-SLAVES-20141211
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