Hello everyone,
Jehovah’s Witnesses are taught that their reward for faithful obedience to the Governing Body will be to live on a paradise earth. That idea is reinforced thousands of times in JW.org publications, videos, and from the convention platform. Yet, the Bible doesn’t use the term “paradise earth” even once. Not once!
The word “paradise” in Greek only appears three times in the Christian Scriptures and never in connection to the earth. In our previous video, we looked at the second and third occurrences and saw that the word carries a spiritual meaning. In this video, we’ll focus on the first of those three. It’s the only time Jesus uses the word.
The scene is familiar to every Christian. Jesus is being executed by the Romans. Two criminals have been nailed up beside him. One of them recognizes who Jesus is and asks to be remembered when the Lord comes into his kingdom.
Jesus replies:
“TRULY I SAY TO YOU TODAY YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE”
(Luke 23:43, Greek Interlinear)
First-century Greek had no lowercase letters or punctuation. So the challenge in understanding what Jesus meant is figuring out where the comma belongs. Which verb does the adverb “today” modify? Was Jesus saying that he and the criminal would be in paradise that very day, or was he simply being emphatic?
“Today I truly tell you…”
You see the problem, right?
Almost all English Bible translations interpret this verse so that “today” refers to when they would be in paradise. Here are a few examples:
“And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (English Standard Version)
Jesus replied, "I promise that today you will be with me in paradise." (Contemporary English Version)
He replied to him, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (New American Bible)
There’s just one teensy, weensy little problem with that rendering. Jesus wasn’t in paradise that day. He was in the grave. How do we know? Because Jesus himself tells us so.
“For just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.” (Matthew 12:40 Berean Literal Bible)
“From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that…He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.” (Matthew 16:21 New Living Translation)
Being raised from the dead doesn’t exactly sound like paradise, does it?
Now why would all these scholarly Bible translators choose to render verse 43 in such a way as to contradict what our Lord says elsewhere in Scripture? I can give you a one-word answer to that question: Eisegesis.
You remember eisegesis, don’t you? That’s the term we use to describe when someone imposes their own interpretation onto Scripture. Most Bible translators come from Christian sects that promote the idea that Jesus is part of a triune God. So, to explain how God could be a man, they teach that Jesus is both fully God and fully man. The man part could die, but the God part would go on living. As for the criminal, those translators believe in an immortal soul. So, the criminal’s body would die, but his soul would survive and go to paradise that very day.
Here's the thing: Even if you believe in the Trinity and the immortal soul, you still can’t prove that Jesus and that criminal were in paradise that day, unless you believe that first-century earth was a paradise in which demons also lived.
You see, for the next forty days, Jesus remained on earth without ascending to his Father in the heavens. Three days after his death, he came back to life. Mary saw him at the tomb and ran to him. He said to her:
“Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” (John 20:17 NIV)
Then, beyond appearing to hundreds of his disciples, Peter tells us that Jesus also preached to imprisoned spirits—that would be the demons.
“For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit, in whom He also went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.” (1 Peter 3:18-20 BSB)
So…where was our repentant criminal during all of this?
Are we to understand, then, that Bible versions like the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures were right all along to put the comma after the adverb today like this?
“Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43 NWT)
That might seem to be correct, but let’s not go jumping to conclusions. You see, something doesn’t quite add up. The Bible tells us this about Jesus Christ:
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8 NIV)
So he doesn’t change. Also, he doesn’t lie. So when he says “Truly I say to you” or “Truly I tell you” you can be sure that his words will come true. There is no doubt.
The Greek word translated as “truly” is ἀμήν. The transliteration is “amén”—that’s right, the same word we say in English as “amen.”
Do you know how often Jesus says, “Truly I tell you”? I found 77 instances across the four gospel accounts.
Here are just a few examples from the New International Version:
Matthew 10:15: "Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town."
Matthew 23:36: "Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation."
Mark 9:41: "Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.”
Mark 14:25: "Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
Luke 4:24: "Truly I tell you…no prophet is accepted in his hometown."
John 3:3: "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again."
John 5:24: "Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life..."
Of the 77 times Jesus says, “Truly I tell you,” how many times does the word “today” appear in the sentence? Once. Only once. So why the sudden change? Why the need to add a time-sensitive modifier here? Maybe he’s not doing that at all. But if that’s the case, then all those other Bible translators were right to place the comma where they did.
Still—could it be they got the punctuation right, but for the wrong reason? Could it be that Jesus meant something other than what most of us have assumed?
Let’s take another look. We’ll start with what we know. The Bible tells us the human soul can die. Ezekiel 18:4 says:
“The soul who sins—it shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:4)
Hebrew: “הַנֶּפֶשׁ הַחֹטֵאת הִיא תָמוּת”
We also know there is no consciousness in death. Many scriptures support this, but we need go no further than the resurrection of Lazarus.
“Jesus said, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.’” (John 11:11 NIV)
When Jesus raised Lazarus, he didn’t return saying, “Lord, why’d you drag me back from paradise? I was having such a great time there.”
Okay, so no immortal soul, no consciousness after death. Just nothingness.
If we are going to get to the bottom of this, I think we have to look into Jesus’ state of mind as well. The night before his execution, he told James and John:
“My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." (Matthew 26:38 NLT)
“Crushed with grief to the point of death!” Wow. What was he going through? I can’t even begin to imagine.
On top of that, he hadn’t slept that night. Then he was arrested. All his friends and disciples ran away and left him alone and abandoned. Next, he was tried in a secret tribunal, where for hours he was slandered, falsely accused, lied about, slapped, and insulted. Then when day came, he was taken to the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, where he was further mistreated, being flogged with a whip laced with sharp bone fragments to within an inch of his life. Many a lesser man would have died during that level of scourging.
In his weakened state he was unable to carry the heavy wood stake or cross to which he was going to be nailed. Then—can you imagine this—the pain of having your hands and feet pierced with nails, and being hung in public, exposed to the mockery and abuse of the crowd?
But we can’t stop there, because on top of all the physical pain and abuse, our Lord bore the weight of the world on his shoulders. He was carrying the sin of the entire world of humankind. He was now responsible for the potential salvation of every human being that had ever lived and countless billions yet to be born. He could not fail, for to fail would be a loss beyond imagination.
Now, in the midst of all that, this happens:
One of the criminals who hung there heaped abuse on Him. “Are You not the Christ?” he said. “Save Yourself and us!” But the other one rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same judgment? We are punished justly, for we are receiving what our actions deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” (Luke 23:39-42 NLT)
This criminal, who had wasted his life and was now paying the price for it, came to see—at the final hour of his wretched existence—that this was his last chance at redemption. He recognized that Jesus was the Messiah, the King of God’s kingdom. So he made one final appeal, hoping against hope that he might still be saved.
Jesus, who perfectly reflects the love of God, put the needs of others above his own. He gathered what little strength he had left, and from the depths of his own pain, suffering and despair gave the man the reassurance he needed. Perhaps you’ve been so sick in your life that you can recall the effort it took even to utter a few whispered words. Jesus spoke with an economy of language, but his words were rich with meaning. Did he have the strength or time to offer a detailed explanation of what he meant? No. Of course not. But in just a few words, he gave that man exactly what his heart longed for.
Did that criminal believe in an afterlife? Some Jews did. Their beliefs were influenced, in part, by pagan cultures. But this wasn’t the moment for theological debates. What the man needed was the assurance that his suffering would end that day—and that he would wake up in paradise.
And he will. For him, it will be that very day, because from his perspective, no time will have passed. We can take great comfort in that.
You and I have put our faith in Jesus as our King. We also long to be with him when he comes into his kingdom. If you were to die this instant, how much time would pass—from your point of view—between closing your eyes in death and opening them again in the resurrection? Is there even a unit of time small enough to measure that? Would it feel instantaneous?
If I die today, I will be alive today, though a thousand years may have passed. From my perspective, my life will have continued without a break. I simply fell asleep—and then I woke up.
Now, can I say with absolute certainty that this is what Jesus meant?
No. But it’s what I understand from his words. And one thing I can say for certain: to be in paradise means being with Jesus in his kingdom.
Will that criminal be one of the priests who rule with Jesus? Or will he be among the unrighteous ones who are guided to the fountains of living water, as described in Revelation 7:17? I don’t know—but I’m very eager to find out.
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May our heavenly Father bless the faith you show.