Verse in question:
Luke 23:43
43 And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
What you probably don't know (my assumption). Greek has no punctuation. This is another example of translator bias to fit the grammar with their preconceived theological position.
You can translate this verse two ways and both would be technically correct grammatically:
1. And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you
, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
2. And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you
today, you will be with Me in Paradise.”
The difference is the placement of the comma. If like many translations you place the comma before the word today, then when we read it in English is sounds like Jesus is promising the thief that on that very day 2,000 years ago the thief would be with him in paradise on that very day.
If however, you place the comma after the word today, then Jesus is promising the thief on that day 2,000 years ago that the thief WILL BE (future) with Him in Paradise.
Second problem is your understanding of the word Paradise; it means a lush garden.
G3857 matches the Greek παράδεισος (paradeisos),
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3857/kjv/tr/0-1/
Gen2:8
And the LORD God planted a
garden (paradeisos) eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
Gen 3:24
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden (paradeisos) of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Ez 28:13
Thou hast been in Eden the garden (paradeisos) of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
Rev 2:7
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise (paradesisos) of God.
The tree of life was here on earth in which Adam was kicked out from least he eat and live forever. The paradise (Garden) of God is in the future Kingdom where it grow 12 fruits, one for each month in Jerusalem (Ez 47:1-12 ->Rev 22:1-3)
Third, the context of the promise made to the thief is based upon the thief's knowledge of the future kingdom, “Lord, remember me
when You come into Your kingdom.” The thief wasn't talking about ascending to heaven upon death; he was speaking of Christ second coming and the resurrection of the dead.
Hope this helps, helped me a lot when someone explained it to me.
