Is “Today” when the thief enters paradise—or when Jesus speaks the promise? Luke 23:43, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” However, the original Greek lacked punctuation, and the sentence can also be translated, “Truly I say to you today, you will be with me in Paradise.” This alternative, while not common in many translations, is grammatically legitimate. The Greek text reads: ἀ μ ὴ ν σοι λέγω, σήμερον μετ ᾽ ἐ μο ῦ ἔ σ ῃ ἐ ν τ ῷ παραδείσ ῳ . Literally: “Truly to you I say today with me you will be in Paradise.” Why does this matter? For one, it contradicts John 20:17. After His resurrection, Jesus tells Mary, “I have not yet ascended to the Father.” If Paradise is understood as Heaven or the Father’s presence, Jesus was not yet there on the Third Day, making it problematic to claim He was there with the thief on the day of the crucifixion. So, what did the early Church teach? As I covered in Chapter Six of Gehenna Revisited: Rebutting F...
Apologetics, Bible prophecy, teaching and defending the Christian faith.