"Remember what I told you: A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: They hated me without reason." (John 15:20-25)
What do you make of this passage? Does it make a case of ignorance being a valid excuse for some sins, or at least a mitigating factor?
"Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do."
Between the two passages, I don't know how to avoid the conclusion that ignorance can be a mitigating factor when it comes to Divine Justice.
