First, when Jesus uses the word "paradise,” He did not mean heaven. Paradise, from the Hebrew "sheol," meant the realm of the righteous dead. This was the place of the dead who were destined for heaven, but who were captive until the Lord's resurrection. Second, since there was no punctuation in the original manuscript, Jesus’ statement “I say to you today you will be with me in paradise” does not mean there was a comma after the first word “you.” This means Jesus could have said, “I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise” (meaning, Jesus could have emphasized with exclamation his statement was “today” or “now,” and that some time in the future the good thief would go to heaven). Third, even if the thief went straight to heaven, this does not prove there is no purgatory (those who are fully sanctified in this life – perhaps by a bloody and repentant death – could be ready for admission in to heaven).
Also, I noted that several of the statements in this piece are attributed to Jewish “legend.” I would not want to base any belief on a legend.
Legend = oral tradition. This is how the faith was passed down for generations until the printing press made it possible to finally transcribe and reproduce texts. Remember not everything Jesus said and did was written down. The same is true for the Old Testament. The Written Law is another name for the Torah. The Oral Law is a legal commentary on the Torah, explaining how its commandments are to be carried out. Common sense suggests that some sort of oral tradition was always needed to accompany the Written Law, because the Torah alone, even with its 613 commandments, is an insufficient guide to Jewish life.
Without an oral tradition, some of the Torah's laws would be incomprehensible. In the Shema's first paragraph, the Bible instructs: "And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart. And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes" (see Deuteronomy 6:4-8). ref.
Excellent post, NYer. Thanks.
Thank you for your comments.
If this author meant oral tradition, I wonder why did he simply not use that term. Oral tradition and legend are NOT the same. My dictionary defines the word legend as “a story that has been passed down for years and is unlikely to be true.” So much for that. There are a multitude of legends in all cultures - Atlantis, Narcissus, Pandora’s Box, and on and on - I’m confident that you do not believe these are on the level of the “legend” you are promulgating; yet I am pretty certain that for many years people believed them as real, just as they believed in all the stories of Medusa, Zeus, Hera, and so on.
Regarding the “I say to you today” as if Jesus had to clarify to the thief that what he was saying was actually being said today and not yesterday, this is EXACTLY what the Jehovah’s witnesses use for their evidence.
After all the stuff I have read on here about Purgatory from the Catholic contingent, and all the stuff I have read from the non-Catholic contingent, I came up with the concept that there is a Purgatory, where people must be purged of their hay, stubble and straw, but only Catholics have to suffer it. Did you ever even think that because you don’t believe Jesus died for ALL of your sins, that maybe you do need the extra cleansing and those of us who believe His precious blood covered all don’t?
Back to being serious, however, I do plan to check into this some more, as I am interested in what the early church fathers had to say. Another Freeper has given me some info and I am going to be reading that.
And what about Limbo? I haven’t heard a peep about that but my dear father, poor soul, believed it.