scowl, on 15 February 2013 - 12:03 AM, said:
Explain Luke 23:42 and 43 to me when Jesus and a couple of other guys were dying on their crosses:
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.
Is heaven just for people who were lucky enough to die near Jesus when he died?
Its an interesting point. First of all recall that he said paradise. Not heaven. The meek shall inherit, what? The Earth. (Psalm 37:29) Second of all recall that for three days after Jesus died he was in hell. Not paradise. (Acts 2:30-31 / Luke 9:22 / John 20:17) Only a certain number of people go to heaven. (Revelation 7:3, 4; 14:1-3)
Some scholars think that Jesus said it like this: Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise." So that the today applies not in being in paradise, but in the telling of it. That sounds plausible, but isn't correct. The Encyclopedia Americana (1956, Vol. XXIII, p. 16) states: “No attempt to punctuate is apparent in the earlier manuscripts and inscriptions of the Greeks.” The Greek wouldn't have such punctuation until the 9th century C.E.
The Emphasised Bible translated by J. B. Rotherham agrees. In a footnote on Luke 23:43, translator L. Reinhardt says: “The punctuation presently used [by most translators] in this verse is undoubtedly false and contradictory to the entire way of thinking of Christ and the evildoer. . . . [Christ] certainly did not understand paradise to be a subdivision of the realm of the dead, but rather the restoration of a paradise on earth.”
Christ was talking about paradise restored. The man would be one of the meek who inherit the earth, and though it would be thousands of years later, it would seem to the man as if he had only just woke up from a sleep on that day.