Luke 23:43

Verily. See on Matt. 5:18.

Today. Gr. semeront. As originally written, the Greek was without punctuation, and the adverb semeront, “today,” stands between two clauses which read, literally, “truly to you I say” and “with me you will be in the paradise.” Greek usage permitted an adverb to appear anywhere in a sentence the speaker or writer desired to place it. Merely from the Greek construction of the sentence in question it is impossible to determine whether the adverb “today” modifies “I say” or “you will be.” Either is possible. The question is, Did Jesus mean to say, literally, “Truly to you I say today,” or “Today with me you will be in paradise”? The only way of knowing which Christ meant is to discover scriptural answers to some other questions: (1) What is paradise? (2) Did Jesus go to paradise on the day of His crucifixion? (3) What did Jesus teach about the time when men would enter upon their reward in paradise? For an answer to the first question see below on the word “paradise.” For answers to the second and third questions see below on the words “be with me.”

Be with me. On the eve of the betrayal — less than 24 hours before making this promise to the thief — Jesus had told the Twelve, “In my Father’s house are many mansions. ... I go to prepare a place for you. ... I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (see on John 14:1-3). Yet, three days later Jesus informed Mary, “I am not yet ascended to my Father” (John 20:17). Obviously, therefore, Jesus did not go to paradise, and was not in paradise, on the day of His crucifixion. Accordingly, the thief could not have been with Jesus in paradise.

Paradise. Gr. paradeisos, a transliteration of the Persian pairidaeza, meaning an “enclosure,” “park,” or “preserve” containing trees, in which animals were often kept for the hunt. It was enclosed by walls and sometimes furnished with towers for the hunters.

The equivalent Hebrew word, pardes, is translated “forest,” or “orchard” (see on Neh. 2:8; Eccl. 2:5). In the FXX the “garden” of Eden is spoken of as the “paradise” of Eden (see on Gen. 2:8). In fact, paradeisos is common in the FXX where the word “garden” (Heb. gan) appears in the English translation (see Gen. 3:1; Isa. 51:3; Joel 2:3; etc.).

In the NT paradeisos occurs only in Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 12:4; Rev. 2:7. In 2 Cor. 12:2-4 “paradise” is obviously synonymous with “heaven.” The fact that Paul refers to no earthly “paradise” is doubly clear from the fact he equates being “caught up” to “heaven” with being “caught up” to “paradise.” According to Rev. 2:7 the “tree of life” is said to be “in the midst of the paradise of God,” whereas in Rev. 21:1-3, 10; Rev. 22:1-5 the tree of life is associated with the new earth, the New Jerusalem, the river of life, and the throne of God. There can be no doubt whatever that NT usage of paradeisos consistently makes it synonymous with “heaven.”

Therefore, when Jesus assured the thief of a place with Him in “paradise,” He referred to the “many mansions” of His “Father’s house” and to the time when He would “receive” unto Himself His own (see on John 14:1-3). Throughout His ministry Jesus had specifically stated that He would “reward every man according to his works” when He returned in triumph “in the glory of his Father with his angels” (see on Matt. 16:27). Not until that time will He invite the saved of earth to “inherit the kingdom prepared for” them “from the foundation of the world” (see on Matt. 25:31, 34; cf. Rev. 22:21). Paul taught that those who fall asleep in Jesus will come forth from their graves at Christ’s second coming (see 1 Cor. 15:20-23) to receive immortality (vs. 51-55). The resurrected righteous and righteous living will “be caught up together ... to meet the Lord in the air,” and thus “ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). The thief will, accordingly, be “with” Jesus in “paradise” following the resurrection of the just, at His second coming.

It should be noted that the comma between the words “thee” and “today” was inserted by the translators. The original Greek text, which had neither punctuation nor word division (see p. 115) reads: amen soi lego semeron met emou ese en to paradeiso, literally, “truly to-you I-say today with-me you-will-be in the paradise.” The adverb semeron, “today,” stands between the two verbs lego, “I-say,” and ese, “you-will-be,” and might properly apply to either. Its position immediately following the verb lego, “I-say,” may imply a closer grammatical relationship to it than to the verb ese, “you will be.”

Obviously, in placing the comma before the word “today,” the translators were guided by the unscriptural concept that the dead enter into their rewards at death. But, as set forth above, it is manifest that neither Jesus nor the writers of the NT believed or taught such a doctrine. To place the comma before the word “today” thus makes Christ contradict what He and the various NT writers have plainly stated elsewhere.

Accordingly, the Scriptures themselves require that the comma be placed after the word “today,” not before it. See on John 4:35, 36.

Thus what Christ actually said to the thief on the cross was: “Verily I say unto thee today, Thou shalt be with me in paradise.” The great question the thief was pondering at the moment was not when he would reach paradise, but whether he would get there at all. Jesus’ simple statement assures him that, however undeserving he may be and however impossible it may appear for Jesus — dying the death of a condemned criminal — to make good such a promise, the thief will most assuredly be there. In fact, it was Jesus’ presence on the cross that made such a hope possible.