Jesus said He would be 3 days and 3 nights in the heart of the earth following His crucifixion in Matthew 12:40
For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth
But Jesus also said to the thief on the cross "today you will be with me in paradise" Luke 23:43
And Jesus said unto him,Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise
So this seems like a contradiction, doesn't it? Was He in two places at once? The heart of the earth, where Jesus went to preach to the spirits in captivity as per 1 Peter 3:19, is surely not paradise by any stretch of the imagination.
Acts 1:2-3 mentions that He had not yet ascended to heaven, but was with them for 40 days.
...until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen
After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God
John 20:17 Jesus tells Mary not to cling to Him for He had not ascended yet.
Jesus said, “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
Acts 1:9-11 describes precisely when Jesus ascends to heaven.
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.
Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Question: why did Jesus tell the thief on the cross that he would be with Him in paradise "today" when scripture clearly teaches that Jesus descended to the realm of the dead and then resurrected to spend 40 days with His disciples?
Answer: The best answer I can think of is simply that God views time differently than we do, I guess.
Can anyone resolve this seeming contradiction?