From Claude.ai on 5/2/2026. – Where in the bible do critical bible scholars say Jesus teaches there’s forgiveness outside of the temple and you don’t need atonement? Cite all sources inline.
This is a rich and nuanced topic in critical biblical studies. Here’s a thorough overview of the key passages scholars point to, and what the major critical scholars argue about them.
Jesus and Forgiveness Outside the Temple: What Critical Scholars Say
The Key Passages
1. Mark 2:1–12 (and parallels in Matt. 9:1–8; Luke 5:17–26) — The Paralytic
This is the passage most often cited. Jesus says to a paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5, NRSV), with no reference whatsoever to the temple or any sacrifice. Jesus pronounced forgiveness on his own authority, without any reference to those sacrifices — and this is described by scholars as Jesus “bypassing the whole Jewish sacrificial system altogether.” The scandal is noted within the text itself: the scribes immediately object, “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7, NRSV). The wording Jesus uses, “your sins are forgiven,” uses a particular passive tense common to prophets who speak for God without using his name directly — what we might render as “God forgives you.” Desiring GodBibleRef.com
Jesus Heals a Paralytic
1 When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door, and he was speaking the word to them. 3 Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” 6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8 At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves, and he said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? 9 Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’? 10 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— 11 “I say to you, stand up, take your mat, and go to your home.” 12 And he stood up and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
2. Luke 7:36–50 — The Sinful Woman
Jesus tells a woman with a poor reputation, “Your sins are forgiven” (Luke 7:48, NRSV), at a dinner party — again, no temple, no priest, no sacrifice. Despite her identity as a “sinner” and her likely ceremonial uncleanness, she had already been forgiven before she walked through the door. When Jesus declares her forgiven, the statement is for the benefit of the others in the room. The bystanders react with the same shock as in Mark: “Who is this who even forgives sins?” (Luke 7:49, NRSV). BibleRef.com
[My observation – She also does not ask for forgiveness.]
Luke 7: NRSVUE — 36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and when he went into the Pharisee’s house he reclined to dine. 37 And a woman in the city who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. 38 She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair, kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” 40 Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “speak.” 41 “A certain moneylender had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 44 Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven loves little.” 48 Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” 50 But he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
3. Luke 15 — The Parables of the Lost (the Prodigal Son, etc.)
The parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32) depicts God as a father who runs to meet a returning son and forgives him unconditionally, with no mention of sacrifice, atonement, or priestly mediation.
4. Matthew 6:12, 14–15 — The Lord’s Prayer
Jesus teaches that forgiveness flows from God to those who forgive others: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors… For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matt. 6:12, 14, NRSV). Scholars note that Jesus never required his disciples to make atonement for their sins in order to make things right with God or each other — but was quite clear about forgiveness as a relational and moral category. WordPress
What Critical Scholars Argue
E. P. Sanders (Jesus and Judaism, 1985; The Historical Figure of Jesus, 1993) is the towering figure here. Sanders challenged the idea that Jesus was killed for promoting grace and forgiveness in the face of Jewish legalism, and argued instead that what provoked hostility was Jesus’ offer of a place in the Kingdom to the wicked without full repentance — the suggestion that sinners would enter the Kingdom before the righteous. Sanders argued that if Jesus had simply offered forgiveness on condition of repentance, he would have been hailed as a national hero rather than crucified — because all Jews, including the Pharisees, believed in grace. What was shocking was something more radical than that. ANCIENT JEW REVIEWThriftBooks
Sanders’s work is complemented by Tobias Hägerland’s study, which concludes that the historical Jesus probably did announce the forgiveness of sins (at Mark 2:5 and Luke 7:48), and that both studies appeal to the criterion of dissimilarity — meaning it is God, not Jesus, who forgives sins in the earliest Christian tradition, making these sayings of Jesus harder to explain as later church inventions. Academia.edu
Tobias Hägerland (Jesus and the Forgiveness of Sins: An Aspect of His Prophetic Mission, Cambridge University Press, 2012) provides the most focused critical-scholarly treatment of this exact question. Hägerland investigates these forgiveness texts within the context of first-century Judaism and reconstructs Jesus’ career as a healer and prophet, concluding that Jesus announced forgiveness as part of a distinctive prophetic mission — with rhetorical criticism explaining how this tradition developed in the Gospels. He also finds that even in the Gospels, Jesus exemplified his Jewish upbringing in proclaiming God’s readiness to forgive sins “without any reliance upon Jewish suffering generally or upon his future crucifixion in particular,” and that theologies of penal substitution have for too long obscured the abundant, direct forgiveness Jesus proclaimed. Cambridge CoreAcademia.edu
Andrew Perriman (narrative-historical approach) makes the broader argument that forgiveness of sins in the Gospels is tied not to Jesus’ death as an atoning event, but simply to repentance and belief in what the God of Israel was doing — noting that John the Baptist already offered a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” in Mark 1:4, before any cross. He also observes that in the pattern found consistently across Luke and Acts, the absence of any reference to an atoning function of Jesus’ death is noticeable — the pattern being that people believe the story of what God is doing, repent, and are forgiven. P.OSTOSTP.OSTOST
Summary
The critical scholarly consensus is that the most historically credible passages — especially Mark 2:5 [The Paralytic] and Luke 7:48 [The Sinful Women] — show a Jesus who pronounced forgiveness directly and personally, bypassing both the temple cult and any future atoning death, on the basis of faith and/or repentance alone. This was considered scandalous by his contemporaries precisely because it cut out the priestly, sacrificial system as the mediating mechanism. Scholars like Sanders, Hägerland, and Perriman differ on exactly what Jesus thought he was doing, but agree that the direct-forgiveness texts are among the most historically authentic in the Gospels — and that they do not fit neatly into later atonement theology.
Other Scriptures where Jesus says someone is “saved” without atonement:
- Luke 19:9–10 – In the real-life story of Zacchaeus: Zacchaeus climbs a tree to see Jesus → Jesus calls him down and invites himself to dinner → the crowd grumbles → Zacchaeus spontaneously pledges to give half his wealth to the poor and repay anyone he cheated fourfold → Jesus declares that salvation has come to his house.
Jesus doesn’t say Zacchaeus will “enter the kingdom of Heaven.” Jesus says, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:9–10). The declaration is about salvation coming to his house. Zacchaeus himself declares, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus responds to this pledge with the salvation announcement above. The story is exclusive to Luke.
