The comma issue again. I just addressed it earlier in post #14:
Both are fine translations, regardless of the comma placement. The issue, and the problem, however, is not to be solved or fully understood merely by the rule of times according to the ways of this world as they are defined. The matter transcends time. This equation has two different sides, each having their own defining terms...which need to be rightly divided. Do understand--that is true of every word from God--some passages refer to things according to the terms of this world, and some not, but according to the terms of heaven. This particular subject has both. ... As for the comma shift, it works both ways: Jesus said it that day, but was referring to that day being the last day when the thief would be absent from the body, crossing the line between the two (heavenly terms and worldly terms) causing the need to translate between the two according to there different terms by definition. And that is the difficulty and the rub of this topic. Not because it is so hard to see or understand--but because many do not even see that what is written can be as different as heaven and earth. The question then becomes, who is even willing to see? |
Thus, it the comma defines "today" as that day when Jesus said it, there is no problem. You refer to the future--but you are out of context--the thief had no future--meaning that very day he would be with Jesus in Paradise. That is unless you are going to claim "Purgatory", which just means there is another stake in your beliefs that needs to be uprooted. Perhaps not "today."
But the point is this: Jesus was not referring to an event that would occur in time, but in heaven--thus, there is no future within that equation, but only in future experiences by others having there own "today"--"but each in his own order."
