39 Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us.”
40 The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, “Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? 41 And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
43 He replied to him, “Amen I say to you today you will be with me in Paradise.
Luke 23: 39-43
May all of us have as happy a death as the thief who stole Heaven.
I once heard in a homily that the original Greek had no punctuation or grammatical notations and that the commonly written “Amen I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” is probably incorrect.
This portrayal has caused many questions since it implies that the “good thief” and Christ will be in Paradise that same day. Which we know is not correct. He said a better version would be “Amen, I say to you today, you will be with me in Paradise.”
“Amen I say to you, [as of] today you will be with me in Paradise” works too. “Today” refers to the Good Thief’s witness and reward, not Christ’s return to The Father.
So say we all!