The Gospel of Luke states:

“But one of the wicked that went blasphemed him, saying, Art thou not the Christ? Save yourself and us! But the other answered and rebuked him, saying, Thou also fearest not God, being in the same judgment? And we rightly so, for we receive what our deeds are worth; but this one has done nothing improper. And he said, Jesus, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And he said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.”
Lk 23:43 Rev. Elbf.

Based on this one passage, some conclude that after you die, you go to paradise. What that is exactly is usually not so clear, and again and again I have heard that this is another description of heaven. According to this view, then, the following things are understood:

• Death is not dead, but another form of life
• Who dies, lives on
• Whoever dies goes to paradise
• He who dies goes to heaven (“when you come into your kingdom.”).

But if we take a closer look here, there is nothing about any of this. They are thoughts which one interprets into it and which are not explained here. This section is not about heaven or the afterlife. If you read carefully, there is no mention of death at all. Then how can it be a statement about the afterlife?

From life to death

The view of life and death that is well established in the Bible is this:

• We are born mortal and have a fading life
• Once we die, we are subsequently dead
• Life and death are mutually exclusive. He who is dead is not alive.
• There is life again through resurrection, raising and making alive

Death is a return and not a progression. Death is not a vacation destination, but a place of darkness and a land of forgetfulness:

“Will you perform miracles on the dead? Or will the dead rise, praising thee? Will thy mercy be told in the grave, in the abyss of thy faithfulness? Will in darkness thy wonders be known, And thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?”
Ps 88:11-13

In this description, “darkness” and “land of forgetfulness” are figurative representations. Because the dead know nothing:

“For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for their name is forgotten.”
Eccl 9:5

One is not in paradise or in heaven, but dead people are in Sheol (hb.) or Hades (gr.):

“For there is neither doing, nor reckoning, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in Sheol, into which you are going.”
Eccl 9:10

When you die, this is what happens:

“And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”
Eccl 12:7

These exemplary texts can be similarly traced throughout the Old and New Testaments. The statements are congruent. There are few verses that are interpreted in a different way. One of these verses is the statement of Jesus on the cross. But it contradicts the entire testimony of Scripture in all passages where death is actually involved. For the man in the Bible, death is an enemy (1 Cor. 15:26). With death, everything is over, unless God Himself would intervene.

Job writes:

“But a man dies and lies down; and a man passes away, and where is he then? The water runs out of the sea, and the river dries up and runs dry; so a man lies down and does not rise again. Until heaven is no more, he does not wake up and is not awakened from his sleep. That you would hide me in Sheol, hide me until your wrath turned away, set a goal for me, and then remember me! – If a man dies, will he live again? – All the days of my service I would wait until my relief came!
Job 14:10-14

Where is the deceased? That is the question here. The Hebrew “Sheol” has the same root as “questions” (hb. sha’al). About where we are going, we could still “ask” many things. The person who left, we no longer see him. Where has he gone now? The name Sheol is therefore a fitting expression for what happens to the dead. Sheol is seen as the meeting house of all the living – when we die (Hi 30:23).

From death to life

Job wrote, “Till heaven be no more, he waketh not, neither is he awakened out of His sleep.” Sleep is the only image with which death is compared in the Bible. Dead people sleep until they are awakened. That is why it is also called resurrection and resurrection, because someone is awakened from the sleep of death, and after that he can rise again. They are strong, pictorial comparisons. The whole biblical expectation is directed to the resurrection. In death there is no expectation.

In John’s Gospel there is the account of Jesus’ friend Lazarus who falls ill and dies before He can be present. Martha speaks to Jesus:

“Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died! But now I also know that God will give you everything you may ask of God. Jesus replied to her, “Your brother will rise again!” Then Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus answered her: “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in Me will live [für den Äon] even if he dies, and everyone who lives [dann] and believes in Me will by no means die for the eon! Do you believe this?”
John 11:21-26

Lazarus died. With what does Jesus put Martha off? “Your brother will rise!”. In no way does Jesus say that Lazarus now simply lives on in another place, or that he is in paradise. Resurrection is the promise! Martha confirms on it the biblical understanding, of which also Job spoke remotely: “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the last day”. This was her outlook and it was exactly the same as Jesus said. But then the outlook expands in the conversation. It becomes personal, and the resurrection becomes palpable in the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life!”. Also in this statement, life exists only together with the resurrection. This is significant for understanding the following lines. When Jesus subsequently says: “Whoever believes in Me will live even if he dies,” no life in death is assumed here, but life through resurrection. Also, when someone dies, he will live again through resurrection.

“Everyone who lives and believes in Me will by no means die for the eon! Do you believe this? Often these verses are quoted, completely divorced from the context, the wording, and the biblical outlook of which Jesus and Martha speak, as proof that one is just “living in death.” This contradicts the text. Jesus speaks of the fact that all those who once rise from the dead and are present in the coming eon will then no longer die. Do we believe that?

In summary, we can see in the Bible that

• a person lives until he dies
• a person is dead until he is resurrected.

The conversation at the cross

So what do Jesus and the evildoer on the cross talk about? We already realized that the subject was not death or an afterlife. The question of the culprit was quite specific:

“Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!”

Jesus spoke of the coming “kingdom of heaven” in His ministry to and among Israel (Mt 3:2 Mt 4:17 and others). This was the messianic kingdom that was to be established on earth (but has a heavenly origin). Read more in the article “The Kingdom of Heaven”. By no means is this kingdom “in heaven.” The evildoer, because of the proclamation of Jesus and the expectation for Israel, asked, “Remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” Logically, this is the time when Jesus, as the Messiah, begins the reign in Israel. Something else was not known to the audience at the time. The question was a reference to the messianic kingdom on earth. The evildoer was aware – like Martha, as we read earlier – that there is still a resurrection. Then history continues powerfully, even for those who die until then.

So the evildoer knew that he would die on the cross, as did Jesus. But he recognizes in Jesus the Messiah for Israel, and simply asks that He remember Him when He takes the Messianic reign. A remarkable statement, because here it is expressed that the evildoer believes in the promises for Israel. And Jesus confirms this.

“And he said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, This day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”

Jesus mentions paradise here as an answer to the question about the kingdom. These two terms may refer to the same thing. Paradise (Gr. paradeisos) is an expression borrowed from the Persian word for “garden”. In Hebrew, the word pardesim is found as used in Ecclesiastes 2:5 as distinguished from a regular garden. Gardens in the Orient were botanical and zoological parks (Bullinger, Companion Bible to Eccl 2:5). In a figurative sense, this was obviously an indication of the messianic kingdom for Jesus. We know from Revelation that the wood of life will be in Paradise (Rev 2:7, cf. Rev 22:2). It is a description of the time to come.

But was it that Jesus said to the criminal that he would be with him today in this kingdom? This is the real crux of this passage.

Verily, I say to you today!

The theological knob that arises with this verse is at a comma. It makes a difference if it says:

• Verily I say unto thee, this day shalt thou be with me in paradise, or else.
• Truly I say to you today, with me you will be in paradise.

In the first case, the statement is that on the same day both Jesus and the evildoer would be in paradise, but this is not confirmed anywhere else in the Bible. In the second case, it is an emphasized statement, a Hebrew phrase that emphasizes the uniqueness and definiteness of Jesus’ statement. There are far better reasons for the second reading than for the first.

In the base text there are no commas, no punctuation, originally not even word spacing. Letters are lined up one after the other and the structure in words, sentences and chapters is made in the translations. A comma is an interpretation, or a rendering of the translator’s understanding. However, it is not about the punctuation marks, but about the expression that is used. The Concordant New Testament translates here:

“Jesus answered him, Verily I say unto thee this day, With Me thou shalt be in paradise!”
Lk 23,43 KNT

Now Jesus’ statement sounds quite different. With certainty, He assured the evildoer that he would be with Him in the Kingdom. This is a great outlook and has nothing to do with dying soon. The culprit, he is sleeping now. And when he is raised to life at the resurrection, at the beginning of the Messianic kingdom, he will be there.

Exchange

• Was the text in Luke 23:43 clarified with this interpretation in context?
• What image of an afterlife do you have yourself?
• Have you ever justified this picture biblically?
• What other questions come up now?
• Any suggestion to tackle another issue yourself? Which one?