The bloody sweat and 'Father, forgive them'

What's at stake

Two of the most powerful images in the Passion: an angel strengthens Jesus in Gethsemane and his sweat becomes 'like great drops of blood'; and from the cross Jesus prays 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'

Both are missing from P75 (~AD 200), our earliest substantial witness to Luke, and from Codex Vaticanus. They appear in Codex Sinaiticus (in the Gethsemane case, with later corrector marks) and the broader tradition. Most textual scholars now regard both as 2nd-century additions — though they may preserve genuine Jesus tradition.

Witnesses