Read chapter 23
Have you ever realized that changing the placement of a comma can change the whole meaning of a sentence? In Greek there are no punctuations (no commas, no periods, no quotation marks, etc). And as you may know the New Testament was originally written in Greek so the punctuation we read is from translators. This verse here is huge depending on where one places the comma. Take a look at the difference (read it out loud to hear it best):
"Assuredly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise"
"Assuredly I say to you today, you will be with me in Paradise"
The one says that that very day the criminal was to go to Heaven (Paradise). The other implies that he will be at some point in Heaven. So which is it? If it is the first than that makes Jesus to have gone to heaven that same day, yet we know that he was in the grave for three days and three nights after He died, so that wouldn't make sense. The second possibility one would say no one talks like that but as we look at other passage of scripture we note that many do make the point of saying "I say to you today, so on and so forth." Look at Moses for example in Deut. 4:40, "You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time." Moses was emphesizing that from today, the day he gave them the Lord's statues, it will go well with them. Not just that specific day to keep God's statutes to have good but always. So we see the use of emphasis of today followed by a comma. So am I saying you don't go to heaven when you die? I'll let you dig deeper in to that but I would say you can't use this verse in Luke to prove that you can.
No comments:
Post a Comment