The verse in Luke is a perennial favourite in biblical debates.
The root of the problem is that ancient Greek has no commas.
When Luther translates:
“And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee: Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.”
(Luke 23:43, Luther 1545)
it could just as well be rendered:
“And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee today: Thou shalt be with me in paradise.”
There was a time when I desperately wanted to know the one correct translation.
The more I focused on that goal, the less I understood—and I neglected the rest of my Bible reading.
Years later the topic resurfaced.
Honestly, in the end it makes no difference:
Whether the crucified man entered the Kingdom on the very day of his death, or whether he will enter later with us, it changes nothing for our salvation.
For that reason I now regard this debate as rather fruitless.
Still, because I know how burning such questions can be, I will briefly address it.
I thank our LORD that He showed me this YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@schnauzer3815/videos); there I found help in understanding the passage.
Death as Sleep
Fundamentally, the Bible likens physical death to sleep.
Only after the resurrection of the whole world is the final decision made—death or eternal life.
Yet we must remember: in His earthly ministry Jesus Christ did restore some people to life early.
Likewise, in the Old Testament, certain individuals were taken to heaven without experiencing physical death at all.
Thus, as so often, the exception proves the rule:
It is entirely possible that the crucified man reached the Kingdom that very day.
Even if the alternative punctuation applies, it changes nothing for him experientially.
Think of natural sleep: while sleeping we have no sense of time.
Should we die physically and be raised at the Last Judgment, it will feel to us as though we had only just fallen asleep—
whether a second ago or a thousand years past.
Scripture is frequently event‑oriented.
If we view falling asleep as one event and the resurrection as another, then, in our perception, those events occur immediately one after the other.
In this way both punctuation options are entirely valid.
Once I grasped this, it no longer mattered to me which translation is “right.”
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