Luke 23:43 is one of the more well-known of the numerous unorthodox renderings found in the Jehovah's Witness bible, the New World Translation (NWT) published by the Watchtower Society. At Luke 23:43, Jesus responds to one of the evildoers crucified along side Himself. In a scholarly translation, this is rendered as follows:

Jesus answered him, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise."

This rendering comes from the New International Version (NIV), and has overwhelming scholarly support.¹ Contrasted with this is the Watchtower Society's NWT rendering of Luke 23:43, which, in order to support their own preconceived doctrinal biases, is rendered:

And he said to him, "Truly I tell you today, You will be with me in Paradise."

Notice the placement of the comma after rather than before the word "today", to the effect that, rather than promising to be in paradise that very day, Jesus simply spoke his words "today".

As expected, the Watchtower Society claims it is they who have interpreted the passage correctly, in the face of the scholarly community; the traditional rendering as found in scholarly translations is brushed off as another "misinterpretation" by 'worldly' scholars:

Misplaced pauses can completely change the thought of a sentence. An illustration of this is the words of Jesus at Luke 23:43, "Truly I tell you today, You will be with me in Paradise." If the comma or pause were put between the first "you" and "today" a completely different thought would result, as is evidenced by the common misinterpretation of this text. –Theocratic Ministry School Guidebook, 1971, page 120.

The Society's position in regard to Luke 23:43 is simply this: the traditional rendering as found in accepted, scholarly translations of the New Testament does not agree with Watchtower Society doctrine, and as such, is a mistranslation.

Jeopardized by the accepted scholarly rendering of Luke 23:43 are two central Watchtower Society doctrines, these being that mankind does not possess an immaterial spirit element, and that the evildoer to whom Jesus spoke (and by extension, Jehovah's Witnesses today) did not and will not receive a heavenly reward. In other words, if Luke 23:43 is correctly translated as "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise", two of the Society's most core doctrines are shown to be patently false.²

Jehovah's Witnesses are quick to point out that punctuation did not exist in the original Greek New Testament manuscripts. This is true, however this fact in and of itself does nothing to support the Watchtower Society's placement of the comma in Luke 23:43. What it does do is divert attention away from the real issue, which is the Society's unorthodox rendering of the verse.

It is interesting to note that neither rendering of this verse must conflict with traditional Christian doctrine: even were the New World Translation rendering correct, this would not force an understanding that the evildoer would not be in paradise that day - it would simply be left open as to when the evildoer would enter paradise.³ This being the case, then, why does the scholarly community to an overwhelming degree disagree with the Watchtower Society's translation of Luke 23:43, choosing instead to render Jesus' words as "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise"? Clearly it is not to support any preconceived doctrine, since as stated, the NWT rendering does not disqualify any Christian doctrine. What is it the Watchtower Society is not telling us?

What you won't hear from the Watchtower Society (though rest assured, they know it well), is that Jesus is recorded in the gospels as using the phrase "truly I tell you" 79 times! Not once - not even in a single instance - is Jesus recorded as using the phrase "truly I tell you today".⁴ I have heard Watchtower apologists state that "truly I tell you today" was an idiom (idiomatic expression) of the day. I have to chuckle at such a claim, since even if this were so, it was clearly not an idiom employed by Christ. Rather, it was the idiom "truly I tell you" Jesus used, as the gospel records affirm beyond any reasonable doubt:

For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. –Matthew 5:18

Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny. –Matthew 5:26

...Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. –Matthew 6:2

...Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. –Matthew 8:10

Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. –Matthew 10:15

...truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward. –Matthew 10:42

For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. –Matthew 13:17

...Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. –Matthew 18:3

These are but a handful of the 79 times that Jesus is recorded as using the idiomatic introduction, "Truly I tell you". (View an exhaustive list here, taken from the NIV.)

To accept Watchtower doctrine, therefore, is to believe that in this one single instance, recorded at Luke 23:43, Jesus strayed from his trademark introduction of "Truly I tell you" in order to insert a completely redundant word!  It is blatantly obvious that Jesus spoke his words "today"! To accept the Watchtower interpretation of Luke 23:43 is to ignore the 78 unanimous pieces of evidence refuting the Watchtower position.

But one might ask, just where is this "paradise" Jesus promised the evildoer? And moreover, how could Jesus be with the evildoer in paradise that very day? Did not Jesus go from the cross to the tomb for three days? Valid questions; let's take a look at answering them.

Part of the confusion for individual Jehovah's Witnesses stems from the fact that according to Watchtower doctrine, the paradise spoken of by Jesus at Luke 23:43 refers, not to heaven, but to an earthly paradise, to be established during Christ's millennial reign. Christ, so says the Society, could not have promised the man paradise that very day, since the paradise refers to a future time and place. (Hence, the NWT rendering of Luke 23:43.) The Society offers nothing other than their dogmatic claim that such is the case.

The Greek word translated "paradise" at Luke 23:43 is paradeisos, and it is used only three times in the New Testament. It in fact consistently refers to heaven, not an earthly paradise as the Watchtower Society dogmatically states. Consider:

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know–God knows. And I know that this man–whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows–was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. –2 Corinthians 12:2-4

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is [present tense] in the paradise of God. –Revelation 2:7

If we allow scripture to translate scripture, there is no reason to doubt that paradeisos at Luke 23:43 refers to heaven, as it does in each of the other NT occurrences. And, as noted, the Society has offered no evidence to the contrary. But what about the fact that Jesus went to the tomb for three days? How is this to be reconciled with Jesus' promise to the evildoer that they would be together in paradise that very day?

Again, it is Watchtower doctrine - not scripture - that clouds the issue. The Watchtower Society denies that Jesus and mankind in general possesses an immaterial spirit element; therefore, according to the Society, the fact that Jesus' body was placed in the tomb for three days precludes any possibility of his having gone to heaven. But such a position contradicts Jesus' own words at Luke 23:46:

Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.

Compare the prayer of Stephen recorded at Acts 7:59:

While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

Both Jesus and Stephen confirmed the existence of the incorporeal spirit element of man. Both expected their spirit to leave their body at the moment of death and return to God, as taught in scripture:

and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. –Ecclesiastes 12:7

There is not a shred of evidence to support the Society's claim with regard to Luke 23:43. In the name of all that is logical, how can one honestly accept the Society's dogmatic position on Luke 23:43 in view of the facts? The burden of proof lies squarely on the shoulders of the Watchtower Society. They have offered nothing other than the obvious: that the established, scholarly translation of Luke 23:43 conflicts with their doctrines, and therefore must be a mistranslation. We see the Watchtower Society once again conforming their scripture to their doctrine rather than their doctrine to scripture.

Click here for a discussion of Luke 23:43 with a Jehovah's Witness.