Quotes & Notes on:    Luke 23:43 John Wesley's Notes: In paradise-The place where the souls of the righteous remain from death till the resurrection. As if he had said, I will not only remember thee then, but this very day.   Treasury of Scripture Knowledge: * To day. Lu 15:4,5,20-24; 19:10; Job 33:27-30; Ps 32:5; 50:15; Isa 1:18,19 Isa 53:11; 55:6-9; 65:24; Mic 7:18; Mt 20:15,16; Ro 5:20,21 1Ti 1:15,16; Heb 7:25 * with. Joh 14:3; 17:24; 2Co 5:8; Php 1:23 * in. 2Co 12:4; Re 2:7   Adam Clarke's Commentary: To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.] Marcion and the Manichees are reported to have left this verse out of their copies of this evangelist. This saying of our Lord is justly considered as a strong proof of the immateriality of the soul; and it is no wonder that those who have embraced the contrary opinion should endeavor to explain away this meaning. In order to do this, a comma is placed after shmeron, to-day, and then our Lord is supposed to have meant, "Thou shalt be with me after the resurrection I tell thee this, TO-DAY." I am sorry to find men-of great learning and abilities attempting to support this most feeble and worthless criticism. Such support a good cause cannot need; and, in my opinion, even a bad cause must be discredited by it. In paradise. The garden of Eden, mentioned Ge 2:8, is also called, from the Septuagint, the garden of Paradise. The word Eden, signifies pleasure and delight. Several places were thus called; see Ge 4:16; 2Ki 19:12; Isa 37:12; Eze 27:23; and Am 1:5; and such places probably had this name from their fertility, pleasant situation, &c., &c. In this light the Septuagint have viewed Ge 2:8. as they render the passage thus: , God planted a paradise in Eden. Hence the word has been transplanted into the New Testament; and is used to signify a place of exquisite pleasure and delight. From this the ancient heathens borrowed their ideas of the gardens of the Hesperides, where the trees bore golden fruit; and the gardens of Adonis, a word which is evidently derived from the Hebrew Eden: and hence the origin of sacred groves, gardens, and other enclosures dedicated to purposes of devotion, some comparatively innocent, others impure. The word paradise is not Greek, but is of Asiatic origin. In Arabic and Persian it signifies a garden, a vineyard, and also the place of the blessed. In the Kushuf ul Loghat, a very celebrated Persian dictionary, the [Arabic] Jenet al Ferdoos, Garden of Paradise, is said to have been "created by God out of light, and that the prophets and wise men ascend thither." Paradise was, in the beginning, the habitation of man in his state of innocence, in which he enjoyed that presence of his Maker which constituted his supreme happiness. Our Lord's words intimate that this penitent should be immediately taken to the abode of the spirits of the just, where he should enjoy the presence and approbation of the Most High. In the Institutes of Menu, chap. OEconomics, Inst. 243, are the following words: "A man habitually pious, whose offences have been expiated, is instantly conveyed, after death, to the higher world, with a radiant form, and a body of ethereal substance." The state of the blessed is certainly what our Lord here means: in what the locality of that state consists we know not. The Jews share a multitude of fables on the subject.   Family Bible Notes: Paradise; the place and state of blessedness.   1599 Geneva Bible Notes: And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in (i) paradise. (i) God made the visible paradise in the eastern part of the world: but that which we behold with the eyes of our mind is the place of everlasting joy and salvation, through the goodness and mercy of God, a most pleasant rest for the souls of the godly, and a most quiet and joyful dwelling.   People's New Testament Commentary:  On the cross together, the evil doer, who believed in the Crucified One, shall be with Christ in paradise. He was no doubt a Jew, perhaps knew somewhat of Christ before, and was saved by the power and word of Christ, as he saved the woman that was a sinner (Lu 7:48). So he still saves. If we comply with the conditions of his word, as preached by the apostles in the Gospel of the Risen Savior, we will be save   Robertson's Word Pictures:     (Sêmeron met' emou esêi en tôi paradeisôi). However crude may have been the robber's Messianic ideas Jesus clears the path for him. He promises him immediate and conscious fellowship after death with Christ in Paradise which is a Persian word and is used here not for any supposed intermediate state; but the very bliss of heaven itself. This Persian word was used for an enclosed park or pleasure ground (so Xenophon). The word occurs in two other passages in the N.T. (2Co 12:4; Re 2:7), in both of which the reference is plainly to heaven. Some Jews did use the word for the abode of the pious dead till the resurrection, interpreting "Abraham's bosom" (Lu 16:22) in this sense also. But the evidence for such an intermediate state is too weak to warrant belief in it.   Albert Barnes' Commentary:    Today, &c. It is not probable that the dying thief expected that his prayer would be so soon answeyed. It is rather to be supposed that he looked to some future period when the Messiah would rise or would return; but Jesus told him that his prayer would be answered that very day, implying, evidently, that it would be immediately at death. This is the more remarkable, as those who were crucified commonly lingered for several days on the cross before they died; but Jesus foresaw that measures would be taken to hasten their death, and assured him that that day he should receive an answer to his prayer and be with him in his kingdom. Paradise. This is a word of Persian origin, and means a garden, particularly a garden of pleasure, filled with trees, and shrubs, and fountains, and flowers. In hot climates such gardens were peculiarly pleasant, and hence they were attached to the mansions of the rich and to the palaces of princes. The word came thus to denote any place of happiness, and was used particularly to denotes the abodes of the blessed in another world. The Romans spoke of their Elysium, and the Greeks of the gardens of Hesperides, where the trees bore golden fruit. The garden of Eden means, also, the garden of pleasure, and in Ge 2:8 the Septuagint renders the word Eden by Paradise. Hence this name in the Scriptures comes to denote the abodes of the blessed in the other world. See Barnes for 2Co 12:4. The Jews supposed that the souls of the righteous would be received into such a place, and those of the wicked cast down to Gehenna until the time of the judgment. They had many fables about this state which it is unnecessary to repeat. The plain meaning of the passage is, "To-day thou shalt be made happy, or be received to a state of blessedness with me after death." It is to be remarked that Christ says nothing about the p1ace where it should be, nor of the condition of those there, excepting that it is a place of blessedness, and that its happiness is to commence immediately after death (see also Php 1:23); but from the narrative we may learn-- 1st. That the soul will exist separately from the body; for, while the thief and the Saviour would be in Paradise, their bodies would be on the cross or in the grave. 2nd. That immediately after death--the same day--the souls of the righteous will be made happy. They will feel that they are secure; they will be received among the just; and they will have the assurance of a glorious immortality. 3rd. That state will differ from the condition of the wicked. The promise was made to but one on the cross, and there is no evidence whatever that the other entered there. See also the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Lu 16:19-31. 4th. It is the chief glory of this state and of heaven to be permitted to see Jesus Christ and to be with him: "Thou shalt be with me." "I desire to depart and to be with Christ," Php 1:23; Re 21:23; 5:9-14. {k} "verily" Ro 5:20,21   Jamieson-Faussett Brown:  The dying Redeemer speaks as if He Himself viewed it in this light. It was a "song in the night." It ministered cheer to His spirit in the midnight gloom that now enwrapt it. Verily I say unto thee--"Since thou speakest as to the king, with kingly authority speak I to thee." To-day--"Thou art prepared for a long delay before I come into My kingdom, but not a day's delay shall there be for thee; thou shalt not be parted from Me even for a moment, but together we shall go, and with Me, ere this day expire, shalt thou be in Paradise" (future bliss, 2Co 12:4; Re 2:7). Learn (1) How "One is taken and another left"; (2) How easily divine teaching can raise the rudest and worst above the best instructed and most devoted servants of Christ; (3) How presumption and despair on a death hour are equally discountenanced here, the one in the impenitent thief, the other in his penitent fellow.   Spurgeon Commentary: The dying Savior reigns on the cross, and allots a place in paradise to his companion in death. Here is no hint of purgatory, the pardoned thief is with Jesus that very day. So also shall all believers be with Jesus immediately they leave the body.   William Burkitt's Notes: These words are our Saviour's gracious answer to the penitent thief's humble prayer, Lord, remember me in thy kingdom, says the thief; Today shalt thou be with me in my kingdom, says our Saviour. Where note, 1. The immortality of the souls of men is without all doubt: our desires after, and hopes for, immortality, do prove our souls immortal, and capable of that state. The souls of men die not with their bodies, but remain in a state of sensibility. 2. That there is a future and eternal state, into which souls pass at death. Death is our passage out of the swift river of time, into the boundless and bottomless ocean of eternity. 3. That the souls of all the righteous at death are immediately received into a state of happiness and glory; This day shalt thou be with me; not after the resurrection, but immediately after thy dissolution. That man's soul is asleep, or worse, that dreams of the soul's sleeping till the resurrection: for why should the believers' happiness be deferred, when they are immediately capable of enjoying it? Why should their salvation slumber, when the wicked's damnation slumbers not? How do such delays consist with Christ's ardent desires, and his people's vehement longing to be together?   Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary: (No comment on this verse)   The Fourfold Gospel:  Jesus answered the robber's prayer by a solemn promise that they would, that day, be together in that portion of the invisible world where those who are accepted of God await the resurrection. Many thoughtlessly make this dying robber the model of death-bed repentance, arguing that others may also be saved in this irregular manner. But Christ had not yet died, and the new testament or covenant was not sealed. Jesus then could change its terms to suit the occasion. It is therefore no evidence whatever that after his death and in his present glorified state our Lord will in any way change the covenant so as to do away with a single one of the terms required for obtaining remission of sins (Heb 9:15-18). Moreover, the example of the penitent robber is a difficult one to follow; he professed faith in Christ and his kingdom when there was no other voice in the whole wide world willing to do such a thing. Any one having such a faith in Christ will not put off his confession until the hour of death.     Quotes on the passage in General The criminal will share the kingly condition of Jesus that very day.  . - Fitzmyer, Joseph A., Trans., Anchor Bible, Vol. Luke X-XXIV, p.1511 For life is to be with Christ, because where Christ is, there is the kingdom. - Ambrose, Expos. ev. sec. Luc. 10:121 as quoted in Anchor Bible, Vol. Luke X-XXIV, p.1511             Quotes & Notes on:     Luke 23:38     John Wesley,  Notes On the New Testament (1755): To be posted. Reginald Fuller's Preaching the Lectionary (1984):  To be posted.   William Baird, Interpreter's Commentary, 1971:  To be posted.   J. McNicol, The New Bible Commentary, 1954:  To be posted.   I.H. Marshall, The New Bible Commentary, 1970:  To be posted.   David Guzik, Study Guide: To be posted.   Chuck Smith, Study Guide: To be posted.   Catechism of the Catholic Church: To be posted.   J. Norval Geldenhuys, Bible Expositor, 1960: To be posted.   Abingdon Bible Commentary (1929): To be posted.   D.D. Whedon, Commentary on Luke, 1866: To be posted.   Joseph Parker, People's Bible, 1901: To be posted.   Anchor Bible: To be posted.   The Fourfold Gospel:  To be posted. Treasury of Scripture Knowledge: To be posted.   Robertson's Word Pictures: To be posted.   William Burkitt's Notes: To be posted.   Family Bible Notes: To be posted.   1599 Geneva Bible Notes: To be posted.   People's New Testament Commentary: To be posted.   Albert Barnes' Commentary:  To be posted.   Jamieson-Faussett Brown:  To be posted.   Spurgeon Devotional Commentary:  To be posted.   Adam Clarke's Commentary: To be posted.   Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary: To be posted.

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