- Impenitent thief
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"Gestas" redirects here. For the French commune, see Gestas, Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
The impenitent thief was one of the two thieves who was crucified alongside Jesus. According to the Gospels, he taunted Jesus about not saving himself, while the penitent thief asked for mercy. The impenitent thief is given the apocryphal name Gestas, which first appears in the Gospel of Nicodemus, while his companion is called Dismas. Gestas was on the cross to the left of Jesus and Dismas was on the cross to the right of Jesus. In Jacobus de Voragine's "Golden Legend" the name of the impenitent thief is given as Gesmas.
The apocryphal Arabic Infancy Gospel refers to Gestas and Dismas as Dumachus and Titus, respectively. According to tradition, Dumachus was one of a band of robbers who attacked Saint Joseph and the Holy Family on their Flight into Egypt as recorded in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Golden Legend.[1]
See also
This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.
References
Categories:- Christian folklore
- New Testament people
- 30s deaths
- People executed by crucifixion
- Christian biography stubs
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