The penitent thief, also known as the good thief, wise thief, grateful thief, or thief on the cross, is one of two unnamed thieves in Luke the Evangelist's account of the crucifixion of Jesus in the New Testament. The Gospel of Luke describes him asking Jesus to "remember him" when Jesus comes into his kingdom. The other, as the impenitent thief, challenges Jesus to save himself and both of them to prove that he is the Messiah.
Later Christian tradition named him Dismas, and he is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Catholic Church and Oriental Orthodox Church. The Roman Martyrology places his commemoration on 25 March, together with the Feast of the Annunciation, because of the ancient Christian tradition that Christ (and the penitent thief) were crucified and died exactly on the anniversary of Christ's incarnation.
The penitent thief is unnamed in the canonical gospels. The name Dismas was assigned later, in an early Greek recension of the Acta Pilati and the Latin Gospel of Nicodemus, portions of which may date to the late fourth century; it may derive from a Greek word meaning "dying". He is traditionally known in Catholicism as Saint Dismas (sometimes Dysmas; in Spanish and Portuguese, Dimas), while the other thief is named Gestas. Other traditions give other names:
In Coptic Orthodox tradition and the Narrative of Joseph of Arimathea, he is named Demas.
In the Codex Colbertinus, he is named Zoatham or Zoathan.
In the Arabic Infancy Gospel, he is named Titus and the other thief Dumachus; it adds a tale in which Titus prevented his companions from robbing Mary and Joseph during the flight into Egypt.
In Russian Orthodox tradition, he is named Rakh (Russian: Рах).
Legendary elaborations grew around the figure. The devotional Life of the Good Thief (Histoire du Bon Larron, French 1868, English 1882) recounts that as a child he addressed the child Jesus: "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." Anne Catherine Emmerich described the Holy Family as "exhausted and helpless" when, according to Augustine of Hippo and Peter Damian, they met Dismas. A Coptic Homily on the Crucifixion and the Good Thief is traditionally attributed to Theophilus of Alexandria (385–412), though scholarship regards it as pseudonymous; it survives in Sahidic Coptic.
Two men were crucified at the same time as Jesus, one on his right and one on his left, which the Gospel of Mark interprets as fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 53:12 ("And he was numbered with the transgressors"). According to the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, both of the thieves mocked Jesus; Luke 23, however, relates:
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."
The Gospel of John mentions the two without naming them or their crimes, calling them simply "two others".
Various attempts have been made to reconcile the apparent contradiction between the account in Luke and the overlapping account in Mark and Matthew. Tatian omitted/rejected the Markan/Matthean tradition in his Diatessaron, and Ephrem the Syrian apparently followed suit. Origen of Alexandria, Eustathius of Antioch, and Epiphanius of Salamis described the differences as reflections of different, yet complementary authorial intent. Origen and his many heirs promoted a chronological harmonization, wherein both thieves at first reviled Jesus, only for one thief to repent on the spot. Epiphanius, followed by Ambrose of Milan and Augustine of Hippo, contended that Mark and Matthew, for the sake of concision, employed a figure of speech called syllepsis whereby the plural was used to indicate the singular. Later commentators, such as Frederic Farrar, have drawn attention to the difference between the Greek words used: "The two first Synoptists tell us that both the robbers during an early part of the hours of crucifixion reproached Jesus (ὠνείδιζον), but we learn from St Luke that only one of them used injurious and insulting language to Him (ἐβλασφήμει)."
"Amen ... today ... in 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." Amén soi légo sémeron met' emoû ése en tôi paradeísoi) 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. 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: