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Luke 23:43: Today in Paradise?

Jesus tells the thief on the cross, who has asked to be remembered by Jesus when Jesus receives his kingdom, that he would be in paradise with Jesus that very day. Yet was not Jesus in the tomb for three days? And does not the Bible teach that he went to Hades between his death and resurrection? Didn't he ascend to paradise only after the resurrection? If this is true, how could he make such a promise to the dying thief?

This question presupposes the answers to a number of questions. The first of these is, Where was Jesus between his death and resurrection? It is clear that his body was in the tomb. That is why all three Synoptic Gospels mention the witness to the burial (Mt 27:61; Mk 15:47; Lk 23:55). Matthew adds the story of the sealing of the tomb (Mt 27:62-65), letting us know that until the resurrection the tomb remained shut with the body inside. However, this says nothing about Jesus' spirit. When Paul contemplates death in Philippians 1 or 2 Corinthians 5, he speaks of his immediate presence after death before Christ (for Paul the important thing is not being in heaven, but being with Jesus, so that is where he puts his stress). He witnesses to the Christian and late Jewish belief that the spirit or soul of a person has conscious existence somewhere between the person's death and their resurrection. Thus what Jesus is talking about is where his spirit and the spirit of the thief were to be.

Some Christian traditions have believed that Jesus' spirit was in Hades (or hell) between his death and resurrection. This idea is based on 1 Peter 3:19 (and possibly 1 Pet 4:6) and Ephesians 4:4. However, such an interpretation is not supported by these texts. While the Ephesians 4:9 text in the KJV seemed to say that Jesus descended into the lower regions of the earth (which could be Hades), in the NIV we read the better translation: "the lower, earthly regions." That is, this passage speaks of Jesus' descent from heaven to earth, his incarnation, not his location after death. The 1 Peter passage does speak of something happening after Jesus was executed, but it does not tell us (1) what the spirits are which are in prison, (2) where the prison is, (3) when this event took place (other than after his death) or (4) how long it took. Let it suffice here to indicate that (1) in my view the spirits are not the spiritual part of dead humans, but the fallen angels of Genesis 6 (contrary to comment on Gen 6:4), (2) the prison could be located below the earth, but there is also a Jewish tradition that locates it in the second heaven, (3) the event may have taken place before his resurrection or it may have been part of Jesus' ascension, and (4) we have no idea if it took more time than a single trumpeting announcement of his triumph, which could have taken a minute or less. Assigning any length of time to this event is pure speculation. (The preaching of the gospel to those now dead, 1 Pet 4:6, probably does not indicate an action of Jesus, but the preaching of the gospel to people who believed and then died, but who still have the same hope as the living Christians Peter is writing to.) My conclusion is that there is no reason to believe that Jesus actually spent any significant length of time in Hades or hell or wherever the "prison" was. If it was a preresurrection trip, it didnot necessarily take a lot of time.

The second of the assumptions is that paradise is another name for heaven and Jesus was not in heaven until his ascension. The first part of this assumption is probably true. While "paradise" is actually a Persian term adopted by the Jews to indicate the Garden of Genesis 2, in the New Testament it means something more than this. In 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 it indicates a place that Paul was "caught up" to, also identified as the "third heaven" (which is the abode of God, the first two being the place of the birds and the place of the stars). This impression is confirmed by Revelation 2:7. So we are on firm ground in that part of the assumption. Jesus is promising to be in heaven with the thief on that day.

The second part of this assumption is not true. The only verse that could indicate that Jesus was not in heaven until after the resurrection is John 20:17, but there the issue is one of not holding on to Jesus physically because he has not yet ascended to the Father. His physical absence from the earth was necessary for the sending of the Spirit (Jn 16:7). He is now physically present, and Mary must not hold on to him to keep him from leaving. This passage says nothing about where the spirit of Jesus was between his death and resurrection.
My conclusion, then, is that there is only one passage that tells us whether or not Jesus was in heaven at some point between his death and resurrection, and that is the passage we are discussing. Jesus promised that both he and the thief would be together in paradise, which is heaven, on the day they died ("day" probably indicating "when we die" rath- er than the precise Jewish or Roman period of time, although all of the traditions place both of their deaths before the end of the Jewish day on which they were crucified). If Jesus was correct, he may have made a proclamation in a "prison" on the way (or that proclamation may have taken place later, at his ascension), but that would be where he apparently spent most of the time between his death and resurrection. If he was correct, it also explains his final words in Luke, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit," (Lk 23:46) for he was going to his Father at his death. His work was complete; he did not have any major work to do between his death and resurrection. Of course, if Jesus was not correct, we have only theological speculation to rely on for where Jesus was during this period of time, for there is no way to test this claim without investigating the place itself. What is certain is that the Gospel writers assume that he was correct about such matters.

When Jesus makes this promise to the thief, it does more than simply comfort the dying man and promise him the reward of faith. What it does is to announce the completion of salvation. Salvation was completed at the cross. There were no more battles for Jesus to fight. Satan had met his match at the cross. The victor, Jesus, could proceed to heaven and there await the resurrection, when his triumph would be made known to the whole world.
See also comment on 1 PETER 3:19.