and what first struck his conscience and moved him to repent, we are not told. Some say, as Bengel, that he was a Gentile ; . and some, as Scott, that he was a Jew. — Some think, as Suarez, that he had heard our Lord preach, and seen Him work miracles at some former period. — Some think, as Euthymius, that he had heard our Lord's answers to Pilate, and heen sti'uck hy them, and so learned to believe in our Lord's kingdom. — Some think, as Stier, that he was struck by the title put over our Lord's head on the cross. — Some think, as Theophylact, that he was pricked to the heart by hearing our Lord's prayer for His enemies, and by seeing our Lord's patience under sufferings. All these are purely conjectural ideas.
Cornelius a Lapide surpasses all other writers in his remarks on the thief. He mentions with much gravity an opinion of Fererius, that the shadow of Christ on the cross, as the day wore on, fell on the thief, and was the cause of his conversion, as the shadow of Peter healed the sick ! He adds another opinion, that the Virgin Mary stood between the thief and Christ, and obtained grace for him ! He also tells us that the name of the thief was Dismas, that his day in the calendar of saints is March the 25th, and that chapels are erected in honour of his name ! It is well that people should know how much rubbish can be found in the pages of an accredited Roman Catholic Commentator.
As to the nation of the thief, it is probable that he was a Jew. Our Lord's words to him seem to imply that. He would hardly have spoken of " paradise " to a Gentile. As to the cause of his conversion, it is safest to rest in the belief that it arose from the free, sovereign grace of Christ, and was intended to be a proof of Christ's power to save even at His time of greatest 'Weakness, and a pattern of Christ's willingness to save the chief of sinners.
[Dost not thou fear God.l Our English version has hardly given the full sense of the Greek words. Scholefield would render it, "Dost not even thou fear God? Even thou, in thy circumstances of desperate wretchedness, — whatever others may do in the unthinking levity of present security."
41, — [This man has done nothing amiss.] The Greek word here translated, " amiss," is only found in two other places. (Acts xxviii. 6; 2 Thess. iii. 2.) In one it is rendered, "harm;" — in the other " unreasonable."
The sentence rather favours the idea that the thief had either heard or seen something of our Lord before, though he had not been a disciple. We must either suppose this, or else we must Huppose that he knew generally that he was being crucified in company with a man whom Pilate and Herod thought innocent.