The first man in heaven is a thief. The question is this: in the Gospel of Matthew, Mark and John, in the description of the execution of Jesus Christ, it speaks of the thieves crucified with him at that time. The prudent robber Dismas
Dismas
Between two robbers- an expression describing the particularly shameful nature of the death of Jesus Christ, whose cross, according to the reports of the Gospels, was erected between the crucifixions of criminals who received the nickname Prudent And Mad robbers.
IN figurative meaning- a person who finds himself in a situation (company) that disgraces him, but at the same time maintaining his positive qualities.
Lyrics
Gospel Description
| They also led two villains with Him to death. And when they came to a place called Lobnoye, they crucified Him and the villains there, one on the right and the other on the left... One of the hanged villains slandered Him and said: “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” |
The repentant thief received the nickname “ Reasonable"And, according to legend, he was the first to enter heaven. The thief is remembered in Orthodox Good Friday chants when reading Twelve Gospels: « You have vouchsafed the prudent thief in one hour to heaven, O Lord.", and his words on the cross became the beginning of the Lenten sequence of figurative: " Remember me, Lord, when you come into Your Kingdom».
Interpretation in Christianity
Prudent Robber was the first saved person of all those who believed in Christ and was the third inhabitant of heaven among people (after Enoch and Elijah, taken to heaven alive). The story of the Prudent Robber going to heaven is not just an illustration of the villain’s repentance. It is interpreted by the church as God’s willingness to grant forgiveness to a dying person even at the very last moment.
The question of the pious thief was considered in most detail by John Chrysostom in his conversation “ About the cross and the thief, and about the second coming of Christ, and about unceasing prayer for enemies" The saint, studying the repentance of the thief and the church tradition that he was the first to enter heaven, draws the following conclusions:
- Christ, being crucified, insulted, spat upon, reviled, dishonored, performs a miracle - he changed the vicious soul of the robber;
- Chrysostom deduces the greatness of the soul of the thief from comparing him with the Apostle Peter: “ when Peter denied the debt, then the thief confessed grief" At the same time, the saint, without blaspheming Peter, says that the disciple of Christ could not bear the threat of an insignificant girl, and the robber, seeing how the people were screaming, raging and blaspheming the crucified Christ, did not pay attention to them, but with the eyes of faith “ knew the Lord of heaven»;
- Chrysostom draws attention to the fact that the pious thief, unlike other people, “ I did not see the dead resurrected, nor the demons expelled, I did not see the obedient sea; Christ told him nothing about the kingdom or Gehenna", but at the same time he " confessed Him before everyone else».
In addition, this precedent formed the basis of the Catholic concept of baptism of desire (Baptismus Flaminis), which is interpreted as follows: if someone wished to be baptized, but could not due to insurmountable circumstances be properly baptized, he can still be saved by the grace of God.
The faith of the prudent thief as a model to be followed by all Christians is one of the oldest in church sermons (the earliest was written no later than 125 by Saint Aristides).
Prophecies
The prophet Isaiah made prophecies about the crucifixion of Christ between two thieves in the cycle of his prophecies about the coming of the Messiah:
- « He was assigned a coffin with villains, but He was buried with the rich man, because He committed no sin, and no lie was found in His mouth."(Isa. 53:9)
- « Therefore I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoil with the mighty, because He gave His soul to death, and was numbered among the villains, while He bore the sin of many and became an intercessor for the criminals."(Isa. 53:12)
Hans von Tübingen. "Crucifixion", fragment, approx. 1430. The soul of the Mad Robber flies from his lips and is taken by the devil.
Apocryphal stories
Origin of the Robbers
Unlike the Gospels, which do not provide details about the people among whom Christ was crucified, apocryphal literature contains a wide range of traditions.
Arabic "Gospel of the Savior's Childhood" reports that the Prudent Thief prevented his companions from attacking Mary and Joseph and the child during the Flight into Egypt. Jesus then prophesies: “ In thirty years, O mother, the Jews will crucify Me in Jerusalem, and these two thieves with Me will be hanged on the same cross: Titus on the right hand, and Dumakh on the left. The next day Titus will enter the Kingdom of Heaven before Me.».
Apocrypha "The Word of the Tree of the Cross" includes a description of the origins of the two thieves: during the flight into Egypt Holy family in the desert he settled next to a robber, who had two sons. But his wife, who had only one breast, could not feed them both. The Virgin Mary assisted her in feeding - she fed that child, who was then crucified on the right side of Christ and repented before death:
A common legend about Mysterious drop says that the Holy Family was captured by robbers, and Mary, seeing the dying baby in the arms of the robber’s wife, took him, and only a drop of her milk touched his lips, he recovered.
"The Word of the Tree of the Cross" does not report the names of these robbers, unlike "Gospel of Nicodemus" which calls them Dijman- a prudent robber, and Gesta- one who blasphemed Christ. Also in this "Gospels" contains a description of the surprise of the Old Testament righteous people who were led out of hell by Christ and saw the thief who had gone to heaven before them. The author of the apocrypha gives the following story from Dijman:
...I was a robber, committing all sorts of atrocities on earth. And the Jews nailed me to the cross along with Jesus, and I saw everything that was done by the cross of the Lord Jesus, on which the Jews crucified Him, and I believed that He is the creator of all things and the Almighty King. And I asked Him: “Remember me, Lord, in Your Kingdom!” And immediately accepting my prayer, He said to me: “Amen, I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” And He gave me the sign of the cross, saying: “Carry this on your way to heaven.”.
The prudent thief in paradise. Fragment of a five-part icon of the 17th century. The robber is met by Enoch and Elijah, on the right - a cherub with a fiery sword, guarding paradise
In medieval art, the Prudent Thief is sometimes depicted as accompanying Jesus during the Descent into Hell, although this interpretation is not based on any surviving texts.
Cross of the Prudent Thief
There is an apocryphal version of the origin of the tree for the cross of the prudent thief. According to legend, Seth received from the angel not only a branch from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but also another one, which he later lit on the banks of the Nile and which burned with unquenchable fire for a long time. When Lot sinned with his daughters, God told him to atone for redemption by planting three brands from that fire and watering them until a large tree grew. The cross of the pious thief was then made from this wood.
The Cross of the Prudent Robber, according to the traditional version, was installed by Empress Helena on the island of Cyprus in 327. It contained a particle of the Life-Giving Cross and one of the nails with which the body of Christ was pierced. The Monk Daniel reports about this cross in his "The Walking of Abbot Daniel"(XII century):
Daniel repeats the earliest record, surviving from 1106, of the Stavrovouni monastery, telling of a cypress cross supported in the air by the Holy Spirit. In 1426, the robber's cross was stolen by the Mamelukes, but a few years later, as monastic legend says, it was miraculously returned to its original place. However, then the shrine disappeared again and remains unfound to this day.
A small piece of the prudent thief's cross is kept in the Roman basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. Her appearance in Rome is associated with Empress Helena.
Cross of the Mad Bandit
The history of the material for the cross on which the Mad Robber was crucified is contained in the Russian apocrypha " A Word about the Tree of the Cross"(-XVI century). According to him, the cross was made from a tree planted by Moses at the bitter-salty source of Marrah (Ex. 15:23-25) from three branches of a tree woven together, brought from paradise during the flood. The further fate of the Mad Robber's Cross is unknown.
Names of the robbers
The names of the Prudent and Mad robbers are known from the apocrypha, which, however, call them differently:
"The prudent robber Rakh." Icon of the Moscow school, 16th century. Rakh is represented in paradise, as evidenced by the trees of paradise against the background of the icon
The prudent robber Dismas
Dijman and Gesta(in the Western version - Dismas and Gestas (Dismas and Gestas)) is the most common form of names for robbers in Catholicism. The name "Dismas" is derived from the Greek word for "sunset" or "death." Spelling options include Dysmas, Dimas and even Dumas.
The feast day of Saint Dismas is celebrated on March 25th. A city in California, San Dimas, is named after him. Saint Dismas is the patron saint of prisoners; many prison chapels are dedicated to him.
The prudent robber Rakh
"Rah"- the name of a robber, most often found in Orthodox icon painting. Domestic researchers cannot find literary sources of the origin of this name. Perhaps the evolution of the name Barbarian-Varakh-Rah. An icon with his image was placed on the northern altar doors of the iconostasis.
Iconography
"Crucifixion", Emmanuel Lampardos, 17th century, Cretan school. Hermitage
Art historians note that the robbers on the sides of Christ in the scenes of the Crucifixion appeared starting from the 5th-6th centuries.
The prudent thief was crucified on the right side of Christ (right hand), so the Savior’s head is often written inclined in this direction. This indicates his acceptance of a repentant criminal. In Russian icon painting, the inclined crossbar under the feet of Jesus is also usually directed upward towards the Prudent Thief. The prudent robber was written with his face turned to Jesus, and the Mad Thief was written with his head turned away or even his back turned.
Artists sometimes emphasized the difference between Jesus and the thieves on either side of him, as well as the difference between the two criminals:
| Jesus Christ | Robbers | |
|---|---|---|
| cloth | loincloth | perizoma |
| cross | Life-giving cross, clear geometric shapes |
ugly, wild, curved trunks, T-shaped cross |
| fastening | nails | tied with ropes |
| hands | straight, elongated | tied behind the cross |
| pose | peaceful | writhing |
| shins | are kept intact | killed by warriors swinging hammers |
One can also trace the differences between the two robbers, the Prudent and the Mad: in the first centuries of Christianity, when the memory of the ancient beardless ideal of male beauty was still preserved, the Prudent Robber
Today we heard the Gospel from Luke about the first of the human race in paradise - the prudent thief. We cannot comprehend the mercy of God, which makes the last first. This saint is depicted on the northern doors of the St. Nicholas chapel of our temple. And one of the parishioners, soon after this image appeared, without making out the inscription, asked: “Is this Christ?” - pointing to the prudent robber.
It really seems impossible to tell the difference. A man resembling Christ with a cross. And he is clothed with the holiness that Christ has, because Christ came to give us all that He has, taking upon Himself what we have. What a robber has. It is difficult for human consciousness to comprehend how someone who has lived such a life can be counted among the saints. But he is the first to enter heaven, Christ Himself canonizes him, giving him access to the Holy of Holies.
On some icons we see, together with the risen Christ, only this one righteous man in paradise, where there are many mansions, as the Lord says, but they are not yet occupied by anyone. A host of Old Testament prophets and righteous people, led by the Forerunner, rushes to the gates of paradise, while the prudent thief is already in paradise, the very first, ahead of everyone, shining with the dazzling whiteness of his heavenly wedding clothes.
We must see again what happened at Calvary. How Christ was crucified along with two thieves. Why did they do this? So that the contempt and hatred that people naturally have for the monsters of the human race may extend to our Lord. People tend to judge everyone in the same company together. They do not tend to distinguish one from another. Looking at the crucified, they could conclude that He was also a villain, because the punishment was the same. And moreover, he is the worst of villains, because he was crucified among them.
We hear in all the Gospels, except the Gospel of Luke, that the thieves who were crucified with Him reviled Him. As if they were saints compared to Him. “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” Obviously, of all the people, this thief, who never ceased to revile the Lord, had the least reason to do so. And another, a robber like him, gradually began to understand a lot.
The Lord was crucified among the thieves in order to satisfy the righteousness of God for the evil done to Him by sin, submitting to the utmost outrage that could be committed against Him by the worst of people. So He became sin and a curse for us all. And the darkness from the sixth hour to the ninth hour shows the darkness that covered the soul of the Lord. God commands His sun to shine on the righteous and the wicked, but even the light of the sun was taken away from the Lord when He became sin for us. The Jews often demanded a sign from heaven. And now it was given to them, but such a sign that showed their absolute blindness.
The Tree of the Cross, planted on Calvary, becomes the Tree of Life in the midst of paradise. “Father, forgive them,” are the first words that Christ utters on the Cross. And the prudent thief is the first witness, the first in the human race, blessed by the power of this prayer. The light that will touch his heart in a few moments will be a sign of the forgiveness of the Heavenly Father, promised to everyone who turns his gaze to Christ. As God said to Moses: everyone who looks at him will be saved.
The prudent thief is not only the first to testify to the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. Through his eyes, the Church learns to see the crucifixion itself in a new way. The word of the cross, which the apostles will preach about, comes for the first time from his lips. Looking at Christ, incomprehensible in His meekness and long-suffering, but as truly close to him as any other person, he begins to forget about his own suffering. He doesn’t know how this happens, but the presence of the One who suffers and dies next to him, just like him, and with him, changes everything. From his lips comes the word that we all know, and which of all the prayers that the Church knows, composed by its greatest saints, are the shortest and most perfect prayer words: “Remember me, Lord, when you come in Your Kingdom.” Many crosses and monuments on the graves of believers are imprinted by them.
Every word in this prayer is precious. First of all, this word “Lord”, the main thing in every Christian prayer, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved, as the Apostle Peter says, after the miracle of Pentecost took place. And no one can, says the Apostle Paul, call Christ Lord, only by the Holy Spirit.
Among all the insults of the blasphemers of the Lord, among the raging crowd, the leaders of Israel who manipulate this crowd, among all these “Save yourself! He saved others, but he can’t save himself!” - only a prudent thief has faith in the One who can save him. His faith is all contained in one word: “Lord.” He says: “Remember me.” He asks for nothing, only for the mercy of the memory of God: keep me in Thy memory.
These words “Remember me, O Lord, when You come into Your Kingdom” make us reflect with fear and trembling on the mystery of human salvation. Who gave this man the knowledge that the crucified Lord was next to him? Rejected and ridiculed by everyone, he will come to earth again, but in heavenly glory. When will it come and how will it come? He who is now dying, like him, like every man, will be alive again. Not just alive, but will appear as the King of all living.
Was this not the reason for the mockery of those crucifying Him? And they captured this contempt, which Pilate ordered to be inscribed above the Cross. These words were before the eyes of the thief: “This is the King of the Jews.” And the soldiers who dressed Christ in scarlet mocked Him: “Hail, King of the Jews.” They placed a crown of thorns on His head. But the prudent thief did not doubt this Kingdom. And he recognizes this Kingdom, and he proclaims this Kingdom to everyone.
An amazing, unheard of thing, someone will say, “The Cross is before your eyes, and you are talking about the Kingdom.” What do you see that would resemble the Kingdom, dignity? A crucified man, dying from torture, surrounded by hooting and spitting, torn apart by whips. Are these signs through which one can recognize the King? But a prudent robber does not stop at external appearances. He sees with the eyes of faith.
And the faith of this man, the inexplicable contradiction of all external evidence, is evidence and proof of the glory of Christ crucified, Who by His power transforms a perishing soul. The righteous will live by faith, says the Apostle Paul. But the wicked, adds Blessed Augustine, is justified by Christ. And He justifies him when he believes in his heart and confesses his faith with his lips. So the prudent thief believed in his heart and confessed his faith with his lips.
It is often said that the existence of evil in the world prevents many from believing. Indeed, one of the thieves blasphemed God while standing next to Him. But we must not forget that it was at this time that the prudent robber found faith. He is our teacher here, showing that faith is primarily a gift of God. The answer to the humility of the human heart, which by the gift of God is completely changed. And such a change in the human heart is a greater miracle than the creation of heaven and earth. The Holy Fathers compare the signs that accompanied the death of Christ - an earthquake, an eclipse of the sun, disintegrating stones and many dead people rising from their graves - with the miracle that was revealed with the heart of the prudent thief. He was harder than stone in confessing this faith, because grace worked through him. Before us is the confession of faith of a person to whom faith in Christ is revealed for the first time, but also the confession of repentance of a person who admits his sin. “We accept what is worthy according to our deeds,” he says to his fellow sufferer. He expects everything from Christ, and at the same time brings deep repentance.
He reproaches another thief who reviles Christ. He addresses all people, without exception, who in their sorrows find themselves unable to confess faith in Christ God. We are also on the cross. The insults you throw at the Lord affect you first of all. Anyone who accuses another of sins of which his conscience accuses him is condemned first. And whoever blames another for a misfortune for which he himself is guilty must be the first to be punished with the same executions to which he condemns the other.
The prudent thief admits his sin. He expects the impossible from Christ crucified on the Cross. And he finds the exact words: “Remember me, your companion in suffering. Don’t forget me when you come in Your Kingdom.” Where, when this Kingdom will come, in what centuries - it does not matter. He hopes for salvation in the distant future. And then he hears in response: “Today, today, you will be with Me in paradise.”
The Lord says: “Amen, I tell you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” “Amen,” which the Savior uses at the most solemn moments, when He proclaims the most essential truths of our lives, in which His grace is present in a profound way. And Revelation tells us in precisely these words: “Thus says the Amen, the faithful and true Witness.” On behalf of the Lord Himself, the Apocalypse calls to us.
“Today, today,” says Christ, “you will be with Me in Paradise.” I don't need to store it in memory, it will be now. I won’t need to look for you somewhere, I’ll take you with Me, we’ll go together. What does this “with Me” mean? Saint John Chrysostom says: it is a great honor to enter heaven. But there is an even greater honor - to enter it with the Lord. This “with Me” means a shared life with Christ, participation in the same destiny to the end. We know that this is how the Lord calls His apostles, so that they will always be with Him, as He says. Thus, at the Last Supper on the eve of His Passion, He says: “With my desire I desired to eat Easter with you before My suffering.”
This “with Me” is included in the High Priestly Prayer of the Lord: “Father, those whom You have given Me, I want them to be with Me where I am.” This is what humanity has come to. To Moses, when his courage left him and he began to look for an opportunity to evade the messenger of God, the Lord said: “I will be with you.” “With You I want nothing on earth,” says the Psalmist, seeing the temptations of the world and the prosperity of the wicked. And Christ Himself is called Immanuel, “and it is also said: God is with us,” as Isaiah prophesied and as the Angel announced this to the righteous Joseph.
What the three youths once did in the Babylonian furnace, when they refused to bow to the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar had placed in the field of Deir and to which all peoples, tribes and languages bowed, was done by a prudent thief. He believed in the suffering Lord, confessed Him as his Lord, like these young men. And before the Apostle Paul can say: “I have a desire to be separated and to be with Christ,” this prudent thief fulfills the apostolic word with his life and death.
The holiness of this man lies in the fact that he recognized the Messiah King in the crucified Jesus of Nazareth. And every time in all the numerous comparisons of the prudent thief with other saints that the holy fathers offer, he finds himself ahead of everyone. He is compared to Mary Magdalene. But she recognized Christ when He called her by name, and here we see that the Savior does not turn to the prudent thief first. He is compared to the Apostle Paul, when he went to Damascus and persecuted Christ. But the one upon whom the light shone heard a voice: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” But with the prudent thief we do not see this light and we do not hear this voice. We only know that his faith was so deep, that this light and this voice, invisible and inaudible, was in his heart.
The prudent thief did not need many years to achieve the salvation of his soul. In an instant, the ray of the Divine, touching his soul, shone for him as the sun of eternity. To become a saint and to become a man, grace is necessary, without which no one can know what it means to be a saint and what it means to be a man.
All saints call upon us to always reflect on the miracle of the prudent thief. Forgiveness is given to him so quickly and grace surpasses his prayers, for the Lord always gives more than is asked. He asked the Lord to remember him when he came in His Kingdom, and the Lord said to him: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” Life is being with Christ, because where Christ is, there is the Kingdom.
The word of Christ about the mystery of repentance is fulfilled on the prudent thief. Publicans and repentant fornicators go ahead into the Kingdom of God. The Holy Fathers compare the prudent thief with the prodigal son from the Gospel parable, to whom his father offers infinitely more than he dared to ask. Bring him quickly the first, the best clothes, the clothes of immortality. The feast of the kingdom is ready, and joy fills the heavens.
The mystery of the salvation of the prudent thief makes us think that the suffering that the Lord endured on the Cross, bleeding, exhausted in agony, dying among the robbers, like a thief, was accepted by Him for the sake of love for every person, without exception. “Remember me, Lord” - probably from here, from these words, with such undoubted hope, the Church intercedes for every Christian who has passed into eternity, proclaiming to him “eternal memory.” And asks to rest with the saints.
And we, seeing how our loved ones leave us, are increasingly convinced that a much larger number of people are being saved than we may sometimes imagine. The Lord vouchsafes to bring repentance to those who were far from Him, perhaps even blasphemed Him all their lives, and just before His death, according to His prayer, which He prayed on the Cross for all people, including those who crucified Him: “Forgive them for not they know what they are doing,” and through the prayer of the prudent thief, the light of salvation is revealed to them.
However, we must remember that it is not for nothing that the holy fathers look so closely at the image of the prudent thief. Because there is a danger of taking too lightly what was acquired for us at a great price.
St. Augustine says: “The Lord had mercy on the thief at the last hour, so that no one would despair, not a single person, because there is not a single hopeless situation. While a person is alive, he can still turn to the Lord. But He pardoned only one, of the two only one, so that no one would place too much trust in His mercy.” Lest we turn out to be that robber who is on the edge when we do not have enough depth of faith in the hour of great trials. The Monk Theodore the Studite says: “This is his end! What ours will be like, we don’t know, and what kind of death we will die, we don’t know: will it come suddenly or with some kind of foreknowledge?” “Will we then be able to be morally reborn in an instant and spiritually exalted like the “companion of Christ,” “who let go of a small voice and found great faith”? Will sudden death take us away, leaving us deceived in the hope of repentance before death? - says Saint Cyril of Alexandria. “Therefore, sinner,” says Blessed Augustine, “do not put off repentance for your sins, lest they pass with you into another life and burden you with an excessive burden.”
Let this light of hope touch our hearts, connecting our cross with the Cross of Christ - a light that no darkness can absorb. The greatest sinners, if they bring genuine repentance, receive not only forgiveness of their sins, but a place in God's paradise. This is the whole meaning of the Lord's Passion on the Cross. He died to buy for us not just forgiveness of sins, but eternal life. Christ suffered on the Cross to open the Kingdom of Heaven to all repentant sinners. Through the Cross Christ enters into Paschal joy. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The Lord convinces us that all those who repent with genuine faith in Him go to Him after death. If there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents more than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent, then what joy will there be when all sinners bring repentance, like the prudent thief! To those who die with repentance, the Lord gives a taste new life- immediately, today, before tomorrow comes, the day of His Second and Glorious Coming, when this joy will be revealed in Divine fullness.
Archpriest Alexander Shargunov, rector of the Church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhi, member of the Union of Writers of Russia
To the question: Who was the first to go to heaven after death? And where did the others end up before him? given by the author Brunnhilde Soulful the best answer is According to the Gospels, he is a robber who hung at the right hand of Christ. He asked Him before his death - pray for me in the Kingdom of Your Father. And he also stood up for Christ before another robber. He said: We are at least condemned for our deed, but He suffers completely innocently. That's why I got to Heaven first...
Oksana
Enlightened
(28271)
Let's make a reservation right away: the Bible is talking about the representatives of the kingdom of Israel, the Jews. There were peoples at that time who did not know the hellish realms at all. Today, experts in the Slavic Vedas claim that the Slavs had the worst thing - purgatory. Where a person underwent a kind of sanitary treatment, was cleansed of heavy energies and went to higher spheres. But it was NOT HELL. This is first of all. Before Christ, all Jews went to hell (this is according to the official version of the church) - starting from the first people made - Adam and Eve. Only Enoch and Elijah the prophets escaped this fate - they were taken alive to heaven. Everyone else, including the prophets, went to hell. There were simply different places in hell, better and worse. Christ descended into hell and brought out both the prophets and the righteous... But the first, even before Christ, to go to Paradise was a robber. He went to Paradise, and Christ went down to hell. There is an apocrypha of Nicodemus: The Descent of Christ into Hell. It can be found on the Internet. Just type in a search engine: apocrypha or apocryphal gospels.
Reply from 22 answers[guru]
Hello! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: Who was the first to go to heaven after death? And where did the others end up before him?
Reply from The stones are crying out[active]
You can't get to something that doesn't exist yet.
Heaven will come later, when there are all the conditions for it on earth.
Reply from Catherine[guru]
Dismas (the thief crucified with Jesus and repented) was the first to go to heaven. Before this, paradise was closed to people due to the fall of Adam and Eve. And the souls of people, before the appearance of the savior, were reborn (reincarnated)
Reply from CATashechka[expert]
The first is the robber. And before that, all the dead went to hell (Sheol), the righteous - separately, to a place without torment ("Abraham's bosom")
Reply from ~Dauren~[guru]
No one has hit yet doomsday. And the last prophet will be the first to enter heaven.
Reply from Solomon --[active]
Regarding the robber. Luke 23:43 And Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
There are no punctuation marks in Greek. And where to put a comma before or after the word “now” is up to the translators to decide. But think about it, did Jesus go to heaven that same day? He only resurrected on the third day. And then he appeared to the disciples for another 40 days. Can we say that he was already in heaven? Think again. He said this to a Jew who was reading the Law of Moses and when Jesus told him about heaven, what associations arose in him at that moment? He read about paradise in Genesis chapter 2, where Adam and Eve lived. This was heaven on earth. And what should that thief think when Jesus said, “You will be with me in heaven”?
(according to tradition on the right hand), repentant, believed in Christ, humbly expressed his desires before Him and received from Him the promise that “now” he would abide with Him in .
All four evangelists speak in more or less detail about two thieves crucified with Jesus Christ (, ,), the most complete story about this is given by the Evangelist Luke ().
The apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus gives the names of the thieves crucified with Christ. The unrepentant robber, who was to the left of the Savior, was called Gestas. And the other, the prudent thief at the right hand of Christ, is called Dismas. In the medieval Byzantine ancient Russian tradition, a prudent robber is called Rakh.
For what crime was the Prudent Thief crucified?
Word robber, used in the Synodal Translation of the Holy Scriptures, also has the following meaning: rebel (terrorist). Considering that Judea was occupied by the Roman Empire at that time, a translation such as partisans.
In those days, theft was not punished by crucifixion, so it can be assumed that the robbers crucified next to Christ the Savior waged an armed struggle against the invaders, and did not trade in robbery.
On the meaning of the penitential feat of the Prudent Robber
Priest Afanasy Gumerov:
A great change took place in the soul of the robber. He turned out to be worthy of heaven. The grace of God healed him, but we should not belittle his personal merit. The converted robber accomplished three feats. First of all, feat of faith. The scribes and Pharisees, who knew all the prophecies about the Messiah and saw numerous miracles and signs performed by Jesus Christ, turned out to be blind and sentenced the Savior to death. The thief was able to see God incarnate in a man chained, like him, to a cross and doomed to death. What an amazing power of faith. He did and feat of love. He died in suffering. When a person is tormented by unbearable pain, he is entirely focused on himself. The former thief, being in such a state, was able to show compassion for Jesus. When another robber slandered Him, he calmed him down and said: “He did nothing bad” (). Do we have so much love for Jesus Christ, who receive so many benefits from God? The prudent robber accomplished the third feat - feat of hope. Despite such a dark past, he did not despair of his salvation, although, it seemed, there was no longer time for correction and the fruits of repentance.
Legends about the meeting of the Prudent Thief with the Holy Family
There is a later popular legend that it was a prudent robber who saved the lives of the Mother of God and the Baby Jesus on the road to Egypt, when Herod’s servants were killing all the babies in Judea. On the road to the city of Misir, the Holy Family was attacked by robbers with the intention of profiting. But righteous Joseph had only a donkey on which he sat Holy Mother of God with the Son; the possible profit of the robbers was small. One of them had already grabbed the donkey, but when he saw the Infant Christ, he was surprised at the extraordinary beauty of the child and exclaimed: “If God had taken a human body for Himself, He would not have been more beautiful than this child!” And this robber ordered his companions to spare the travelers. And then the Blessed Virgin said to such a generous thief: “Know that this baby will reward you well for preserving him today.” This robber was Rakh.
Another legend conveys differently the meeting of the prudent robber with the Holy Family. E. Poselyanin describes it this way: “Seized by robbers, the travelers were brought to their den. There lay the sick wife of one of the robbers, who had an infant. The mother's illness had a hard impact on the child. He tried in vain to suck a drop of milk from her exhausted breast. The Mother of God saw the suffering of the child, the torment of the unfortunate mother. She walked up to her, took the baby into her arms and put him to her chest. And from the mysterious drop that penetrated the fading body, life instantly returned to the withered child. The cheeks became rosy, the eyes sparkled, and the half-corpse turned back into a cheerful, blooming boy. This was the effect of the mysterious drop. And in this boy there remained for the rest of his life the memory of the wonderful Woman, with whom he, dying, was healed. Life had not been kind to him; he followed the path of crime trodden by his parents, but spiritual thirst, the desire for the best never left this ruined life. (). Of course, this baby turned out to be Rakh.
The prudent thief in church hymnography
The prudent thief is remembered in the Good Friday chants when reading: “ You have vouchsafed the prudent thief in one hour to heaven, O Lord.", and his words on the cross became the beginning of the third antiphon ("Blessed") of the Liturgy and the Lenten sequence of figurative ones: " Remember me, Lord, when you come into Your Kingdom».
Does Christ’s salvation of one of the thieves testify to the fact that salvation does not require effort and repentance is quite accessible just before the death of the body?
Metropolitan of Tashkent and Central Asia Vladimir (Ikim):
The story of the prudent thief turns despair away from us and gives us hope for God's forgiveness in our most serious sins, in our deepest falls. But in our pride and deceit we sometimes turn this sacred narrative into a source of temptation for ourselves.
“Let us live for our own pleasure while God tolerates our sins,” we say to ourselves, postponing saving repentance until old age or even the hour of death, slyly nodding to the example of the prudent thief. An insidious thought inspired by Satan! A crazy attempt to lie before the All-Seeing Lord! Which of us is capable of a feat of repentance, faith and love, similar to that shown on the cross by the pardoned thief? And if we find ourselves incapable of repentance in the prime of our strength and mind, then how will this accomplishment be possible for us in callous old age or among the horrors of death? “We must be careful that the weak person does not have weak repentance, and the dying person has dead repentance. You can go to hell with such repentance. Stop, you wretch! Not everything will be for you through God’s long-suffering,” says the saint.
“If the Lord forgave the robber, will he really not forgive us, who did not rob or kill anyone?” – with such thoughts we also indulge ourselves, not wanting to notice our own crimes. But we all commit robbery on the highways of life - if not the bodies, then we rob and kill the souls of our neighbors, and this is even worse than just robbery. Let us remember how many poisonous temptations we constantly sow along our path, how evil multiplies in the world from our sinful deeds and words - and where is repentance? For a prudent thief, the consciousness of his sins was more than torture on the cross - but we will not shed even a tear from our dry eyes or squeeze a sigh from our petrified hearts. And, according to the saint, “no one is as good and merciful as the Lord; but to him who does not repent, He does not forgive.”
The majestic and terrible picture of Golgotha is the image of all humanity. To the right of the All-Loving One, a prudent thief is crucified - repentant, believing, loving, awaiting the Kingdom of Heaven. To the left of the Just One, an insane robber is executed - unrepentant, blasphemous, hating, doomed to the hellish abyss. There is not a single sinner among people, we all bear robber crosses - but everyone chooses whether it will be the saving cross of repentance or the destructive cross of resistance to the love of the Lord.
The prudent thief, who acquired holiness through the feat of repentance, now accompanies us to the Chalice of Holy Communion; we pronounce these saving words before communion of the Terrible and Life-giving Mysteries of Christ. May the Lord grant us, not with an evil heart, but in the humility of repentant sinners, to partake of His Holiness, repeating: “ I will not tell your enemies the secret, nor give you a kiss like Judas, but like a thief I will confess you: remember me, O Lord, in your kingdom».
See also: K. Borisov
About the Baptism of the Prudent Thief
«… the thief received the sprinkling of remission of sins through the sacrament of water and blood flowing from the side of Christ"(teacher, Creations, vol. 4, p. 434).
«… What was the robber’s justification? He entered heaven because he touched the cross with faith. What happened next? The thief was promised salvation by the Savior; Meanwhile, he did not have time and was not able to realize his faith and be enlightened (by baptism), but it was said: “whoever is not born of water and the Spirit cannot enter the Kingdom of God” (), There was neither chance nor opportunity, There was no time for the thief to be baptized, because he was then hanging on the cross. The Savior, however, found a way out of this hopeless situation. Since a man defiled by sins believed in the Savior and needed to be cleansed, Christ arranged it so that after suffering one of the soldiers pierced the side of the Lord with a spear and blood and water flowed out of him; from His side, says the evangelist, “immediately blood and water flowed out” (), confirming the truth of His death and prefiguring the sacraments. And blood and water came out - not just flowed out, but with a noise, so that it splashed onto the body of the robber; after all, when water comes out with noise, it produces splashes, and when it flows out slowly, it flows quietly and calmly. But from the rib blood and water came out with a noise, so that they splashed on the thief and with this sprinkling he was baptized, as the apostle says: we came to “Mount Zion and the Blood of sprinkling, which speaks better than Abel” (
The Robber in Paradise is the apotheosis of Christianity as a religion of injustice. There is no justice in Christianity, because there are more important things than justice. This is Mercy and Love.
God is Love. This must be accepted and remembered. What justice is there in coming, “taking on the form of a servant,” and the innocent dying for the guilty? Where is the justice here?
We are horrified by the injustice of the righteous God in relation to the disorderly robber - robber, rapist and murderer, because we are accustomed to the injustice of God towards Himself. We are no longer surprised or outraged by His unjust determination to die for us personally.
Do you know why?
Well, because, in principle, it’s not so bad that He died for us after all. If he died for us, then fine.
Now, if, say, for Hitler or for Stalin, then something is wrong. It's in vain. Well, then there will be variations. To some, His death for President “P” will seem excessive. Others - for some other president “P” or his black colleague “O”. Yes, in principle, it wasn’t worth it for the smelly, always drunk homeless person in the crossing. And for the boorish boss. And for a thief official. And for the goat traffic cop.
Why? Yes, because it's unfair. Unfair and pathetic. I feel sorry for God. It wasn't worth dying for them.
Still, there are things more important than justice. And this is Mercy and Love.
Today, looking at the thief entering Paradise before the most righteous righteous, we see this.
God loves every creature. All kinds! This is impossible to put up with. It is monstrously unfair to love Hitler and Anne Frank, Stalin and Osip Mandelstam equally! It's unfair, but that's how it is.
Because there are things more important than justice. And this is Love and Mercy.
There is one more thing that is revealing itself to us today in all its mercilessness. In mercilessness to our pride and conceit.
Christianity is not about how to become good person. This is not about how to be one of all the good ones and wipe your nose with all the bad ones. This is not even about the social and moral perfection of the world. This is not about the struggle between all that is good and all that is evil.
Christianity is about only one thing. It's about Christ.
About Christ, Who “is the Way, the Truth and the Life.” That is, He is the Purpose of our path. And the Path that we follow to the Goal. And the way in which we go towards this Goal along this Path.
This is who Christ is for us. And Christ loves every person, both good and evil. Just as the sun shines equally on both the good and the evil. Some simply shield themselves from the sun, others are drawn to it. That's the trick. And Christ loves everyone.
And everyone wants to “be saved and come to the understanding of truth.” He extends His hand to everyone and is ready to pull out every drowning person, even if only the tips of his fingers remain on the surface.
But here such an important thing comes to the fore. And this thing is called “volition”. Arbitrariness, which, it seems to us, we fully control. However, experience shows that most often we do not own it at all. We think we are responsible for our desires, but our desires are actually corrupted by sin. And they constantly deviate towards anything, but not towards good.
And in this lack of understanding, failure to see our inability to desire good, is in general the entire root of our sinfulness, the entire basis of our damage by sin. We think we are choosing good, but in reality we are choosing evil. We are confident that it costs us nothing to always wish for good, but checking our desires with the Gospel commandments, our glance at the figure of Christ Himself, refutes this confidence.
“Convenience to evil” is what it’s called.
It is easier and more pleasant for us to wish evil than to wish good. And if we write “good” with a capital “D”, we will see that it is easier for us to desire evil, that is, not God, than to desire Good, that is, to desire God.
This cultivation of our desires, the cultivation of our will, is the main training; learning to choose God is the main task every second. This is why the fast was so long and difficult, it was to cultivate in oneself the desire for Good. And everyone who tried to solve this problem understands that nothing came of it along the way. No special results. Nothing works out - that's a fact. This is reality. And here we cannot do without God. This is, in fact, what we must come to. And for this, fasting was needed even more, in order to understand one’s helplessness without God.
So we need God's help to cultivate our desires.
To desire to fulfill God's commandments.
And to learn to see the impossibility of fulfilling them.
(Remember? “Grant me, Lord, to see my sins.” This is what we asked for, so that we could see what we really are).
So, we need the Lord to nurture our desires. Otherwise nothing will work. But why should we educate them? Really, to become good people?
We need God's help to cultivate our desire for Himself. This is the main desire. Here main choice. Learn to choose and desire God every moment of your life!
Do you know what this story with the robber is about?
God does not accept good or bad to Himself.
He only accepts those who want to.
This is the story about this.
There had to be a revolution. There had to be repentance, “metanoia”, a change of mind, a complete change of heart of this robber, so that at the last moment he would choose God instead of the non-God, and desire God. And this desire became enough to be with Him from now on always, now and ever and forever and ever.
This story is about how God accepts everyone who wants to. No restrictions.
And here is all the mercilessness, all the impossibility of this lack of limitations, this Divine limitlessness.
From " everyone who wants" to " only those who want."
Here we understand that when, echoing the Apostle Peter in his conversation with the Lord, who in response to the threefold question “Do you love Me?” confirms his love for Him three times, we understand how we ourselves want to, when the apostle answers for the third time, “You know everything, Lord, You know how I love You,” how we want to honestly add, “You know, Lord, how few I love you". And in this honest recognition, perhaps, there is the most important turn of our minds and hearts, which will lead us to God.
The only thing that continues to concern me in this situation is whether, for example, we good people want to be in that Paradise with those bad ones - that’s the question.
Honestly, it’s terribly unpleasant to want this.
