Rev. Rick Warren, Evangelical best-selling author, and former mega-pastor, has stirred up controversy with a now-deleted X post that develops a rather unusual application to a biblical scene of Jesus on the cross. He contends that Jesus being crucified “in the middle” between two thieves in John 19:18 means that “If you’re looking for the real Jesus, not a caricature disfigured by partisan motivations, you’ll find him in the middle, not on either side.”

This is what I want to say to Rev. Warren:
Rick Warren, along with many, I was surprised by your interpretation and application of the biblical scene of Jesus being crucified “in the middle” between two thieves. I myself, in agreement with all past New Testament scholars, do not see any attempt by John or any of the other Gospel writers to communicate, by placing Jesus between two “thieves,” that Jesus is always in the “middle” of any partisan divide on each issue (or, as the other Gospel writers have it, between “one on his right and another on his left”).
Who are the “thieves”?
The Greek word that you rendered as “thieves” (lestai) can be translated as “robbers” or “bandits,” and is used to connote violent national revolutionaries by the 1st-century Jewish historian Josephus. Luke calls them simply “evildoers” or “wrongdoers” (Gk. kakourgoi). John uses the same word “robber” (Gk. lestes) for Barabbas (18:40), whom the other Gospel writers describe as a “rebel” or “insurrectionist” (Gk. stasiastes) who had committed murder during the “rebellion” or “insurrection” (Gk. stasis).
By your “reasoning,” the Gospel writers would be communicating that Jesus is in the middle between two different pro-banditry or pro-violent-revolution positions, which is absurd. The Gospel writers are actually trying to communicate here (as also with the Barabbas episode in Mark 15:6-14) that Jesus was mistakenly crucified as a violent zealot against the Roman occupiers of Judea.
Jesus was not occupying the middle ground.
Jesus wasn’t occup...