Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." Luke 23:43 Is there a problem with the punctuation, as we see that Jesus did not go to paradise that day?



Could Jesus' words be punctuated as:


  I tell you the truth this day - with me thou shalt be in Paradise.
I have heard three resolutions to the series of problems posed by this verse, and found a fourth researching your question. First, I challenge the assumption "as we see that Jesus did not go to paradise that day".


Omnipresence. Jesus possesses two natures, divine and human, linked into a unit in a way that is inexpressible. The divine nature of Jesus has always been in the presence of God in Heaven, and always will. The human nature and physical person of Christ would not ascend to Heaven until the third day. So the thief on the cross would on that very day be with the spirit of Jesus in Heaven. 
Change in destiny. The "today" refers to the time of the change in the thief's destiny. He had been headed for Hell, but "today" that changed. Now that he has confessed his sins and believed in Jesus as his king he is saved and his destiny is to go to Heaven and be there with Jesus, how ever long that journey may take, whether one day, three, or a thousand years in purgatory (which I do not believe in, but also a possibility if you accept this interpretation). So a rewording would be, "As of Today, you will be with me in paradise."
Paradise. This revolves around the word "paradise". If it is not Heaven, but instead the place of the righteous dead (like Abraham) who had not ascended into Heaven yet because Jesus had not yet paid for their sins, then that was where the thief would go - "today". The thief would accompany Jesus on his journey to Paradise to set the captives free, then escort them into Heaven.


For reference: Here is the Greek in question:

Καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ , Ἀμήν σοι λέγω , σήμερον μετ’ ἐμοῦ ἔσῃ ἐν τῷ Παραδείσῳ .

It is the comma after λέγω (lego) that is being questioned.


Contradicting my favorite view.


Here is Wilson Paroschi's take on the question, in an article from Ministry Magazine: https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/2013/06/the-significance-of-a-comma:-an-analysis-of-luke-23:43

There is minority support for the later placement of the comma after σήμερον (today) in Codex Vaticanus and the Curetonian Syriac, but also early additions of the word "that" into the Greek to cement our current, more common translation.

Quoting the above article in defense of the later placement of the comma:


  Among the church writers, this reading was also attested by Ephraem
  the Syrian, of the fourth century,7 as well as Cassian and Hesychius,
  of the fifth century.


In a section of the article on linguistic evidence:


  In Greek, there is no specific rule concerning the position of the
  adverb, whether before or after the verb.11 Thus, from the grammatical
  standpoint we find it impossible to determine if sēmeron in Luke 23:43
  modifies the preceding verb (“to tell”) or the follow­ing one (“to
  be”). Luke, however, has a definite tendency of using this adverb with
  the preceding verb. This happens in 14 of the 20 occurrences of
  sēmeron in Luke and Acts (Luke 2:11; 5:26; 12:28; 13:32, 33; 22:34,
  61; Acts 19:40; 20:26; 22:3; 24:21; 26:2, 29; 27:33).12 Of the five
  uses of the adverb with the following verb, one is a quotation from
  Psalm 2:7 (Acts 13:33), and, in three cases, sēmeron is preceded by a
  conjunction (Luke 4:21; 19:5, 9),13 which makes such a construction
  inevitable. That is, there is only one example in Luke’s writings in
  which sēmeron was freely placed before the verb (Acts 4:9). The
  attempt to read the adverb in Luke 23:43 in connection to the
  preceding verb, therefore, is not only fully acceptable in terms of
  gram­mar but is also in complete agreement with Luke’s literary style.



Convention upheld. Another view, affirming the conventional placement of the comma:
http://www.99for1ministries.com/Placement%20of%20the%20Comma%20in%20Luke%2023-43.pdf


This article refers to Mark 14:30, the only other place where Jesus makes a similar reference to today, and where it would make no sense to attach the "today" to the "say to you".


  “And Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, that this very night,
  [amen lego soi lego semeron taute te nykti] before a rooster crows
  twice, you yourself will deny Me three times.”


This article lists all ALL 76 passages in the Gospels where Jesus says, "Truly I say to you", allowing you to see that either a comma or the word "that" is always placed after the word today.