A lot of my beliefs concerning the Bible and Christianity can be deemed controversial. There are many areas in which I do not agree with mainstream, orthodox, or evangelical Christianity. But of all my beliefs, I am positive the most controversial are my beliefs on the afterlife. Even skeptical or liberal Christians question me when I state the following: I do not believe in the transfer of souls heaven/paradise or hell after death.
Several weeks back, I published an article on why I do not believe in hell. In that post, I traced the history of the doctrine of hell and its omission from the biblical texts. Now, I would like to set my sights on Heaven. I do believe there is such a place as heaven; however, I do not believe the typical depiction of Heaven, nor do I believe that followers of Christ enter heaven after physical death.
My Journey of Afterlife Theology
Early on in my theological journey, this question was a motivator to better understand the Bible as it relates to suffering. I took up the study of theology at the age of eighteen, when my mother was diagnosed with liver cancer. The most prominent question on my mind was why God allows suffering. The second was whether Christians go to heaven.
I lost my mother less than a year into my studies. As you might imagine, I was consoled by numerous Christians that she was in a better place and I would see her again. But part of me was not sure that this was true. I wanted to believe it, and I tried with all earnestness, but it just seemed too fairytale-like. As I dug deeper, I found that I was not entirely wrong.
I started watching a YouTube vlog at the time called “Unlearn.” Unlearn is a heavy source of inspiration for Living by the Logos. Unlearn advocates for “Biblical Christianity,” or what some call “Messianic Jewish,” beliefs.1 One that I watched addresses the concept of the afterlife. And after hearing Lex Meyer, the face of Unlearn, I never thought the same of Heaven again. I have included links to Unlearn, as well as the podcast on the afterlife, in the footnotes.2
Early Christian Interpretation of Paradise Today
If you have ever encountered any so-called Christians who do not admit this doctrine [of the millenium], but dare to blaspheme the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob by asserting that there is no resurrection of the dead, but that their souls are taken up to Heaven at the very moment of their death, do not consider them to be real Christians- Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 80.3
The above quote by the world’s first Christian theologian condemns Christians who believe in going to Heaven after death of blasphemy. This little-known quote is massive in the way that it identifies early Christian belief in the afterlife. Today, virtually every Christian believes that when they die, their soul magically teleports to Heaven. There are numerous sermons, books, doctrines, and denominations based on this one idea. But are these modern inventions embracing the same theology as Justin Martyr two-thousand years ago?
Let’s turn back a few years. The Gospels, with all their differences and similarities, all include the story of Jesus’ crucifixion. This narrative, by modern Christianity, is the focal point of the entire biblical corpus (you know, the part where the hero dies… not where he is resurrected? Churches are decorated with crosses instead of empty tombs? Really??) The Gospel of Luke contains at least one dissimilarity in this story.
Luke 23:43: A Tricky Verse
Luke’s Gospel is easily my favorite. No, not because I was named after it, though that does add a special layer. The Gospel of Luke, in my opinion, is the most professionally composed and historically accurate account of Jesus. Luke’s account of Jesus’ crucifixion also contains a polarizing line that has shaped how Christianity interprets life after death.
As noted in the other Gospels, Jesus is crucified among two criminals. In Luke (23:39), one of the thieves taunts Jesus, saying, “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” The other criminal responds, “Have you no fear of God? You’re getting the same punishment as he is. Ours is only fair; we’re getting what we deserve for what we did. But this man did nothing wrong” (23:40) Jesus famously says to the other criminal, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” (23:43).
The problem we encounter with all modern English translations is the placement of the comma in Luke 23:43. But what is little known and/or often overlooked in biblical teachings is that the ancient Greeks did not use punctuation. English translations added a comma to this verse, and thus, we have the idea that Jesus promoted the modern belief of going to heaven immediately after death.
Unfortunately, it appears scholars tend to ignore this and embrace the popular notion that colonized Christianity teaches. Few commentaries even acknowledge that maybe there is an alternate interpretation of this text. It honestly shocks me how underdeveloped the research on this verse is.
I am no expert in Greek or Hebrew, but it seems the solution to this verse is quite simple based on historical analysis. Punctuation did not originate until the second century CE at the very earliest, and was not widely used until at least the seventh century.4 The oldest copy of Luke 23:43 we have, P(75), has no punctuation.5
This textual problem is not one that is easily solved. I believe the strongest argument for reading the popular translation of Luke 23:43 is a matter of terminology. The argument holds that Jesus would not need to include the word “today,” because clearly he and the thief know he is speaking to them “today.” Jesus says, “Truly I tell you today,” because what else would he say? Truly I tell you tomorrow? Going off of this argument, the word “today” is a key word in Luke’s Gospel. What “the hour” is to John, “today” is to Luke.
While these arguments are strong and, of course, common sense, we have to remember that we are dealing with words composed two thousand years ago, in a different language, in a different culture. There are strong arguments for the other view of this verse as well. We can take, for instance, Luke 9:22 (NIV) in which Jesus says of himself, “and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Or, we can look to John 3:13 (CJB) where Jesus says, “No one has gone up into heaven; there is only the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.”
Paradise Lost, Regained… or unknown?
These arguments are also strong. But a lesser known argument that has been making strides in recent scholarship is the use of the term “paradise.” What is “paradise?” Why do we automatically assume paradise is heaven? To begin with, let’s look at the CJB translation of our Lukan passage. This translation says, “Yes! I promise that you will be with me today in Gan-‘Eden.” The word translated paradise, paradeisos, is the same word that the Septuagint uses to identify the Garden of Eden.6 Furthermore, this word has quite a few differing connotations, including:
…2. a garden, pleasure ground
3. the part of Hades which was thought by the later Jews to be the abode of the souls of pious until the resurrection: but some understand this to be a heavenly paradise
4. the upper regions of the heavens. According to the early church Fathers, the paradise in which our first parents dwelt before the fall still exists, neither on the earth or in the heavens, but above and beyond the world
5. heaven
Strong’s Concordance, G3857 – Paradeisos
When we hear the word paradise, we almost immediately think of some heavenly realm. But is this the same way the ancient world would interpret it? According to Paul R. Williamson and D.A. Carson, “The use of the term ‘paradise’ here aligns this promise with the intertestamental concept of a post-mortem abode for the righteous dead in Eden, conceived of as either a final destiny or an interim state.”7 This meshes perfectly with the Old Testament concept of sheol and the New Testament concept of Hades. Jesus does not tell the thief they will be together in heaven, but in paradise.
This interpretation makes sense because we are never told in the Gospels that Jesus ascends to heaven or descends to hell. The idea that Jesus descended into hell, famously included in the Apostles Creed, has no biblical basis. Jesus ascending into heaven does have a biblical basis; however, it is found in Acts. According to Acts 1:3-11, after Jesus’ resurrection, he spent forty days on earth before he is “taken away” to heaven.
While it probably makes more sense that Jesus refers to heaven as paradise in Luke 23:43, we cannot rule out other interpretations. The only reason it makes more sense is because the church has pressed this theological concept for centuries. Luke 23:43, in fact, is the only verse in the Bible that truly hints at an immediate transportation to heaven upon death. We, again, should not rule out that only Jesus has ever been to heaven (John 3:13).
While the Bible makes it very clear that while Jews and Christians do not enter heaven at death, it is indeed probable that they enter a paradisiacal realm of sheol/hades. Then again, it could very well be that Luke meant “heaven” when he used “paradise.” Bart D. Ehrman notes that Luke often includes doctrines such as this in spite of differing positions by other biblical authors. It seems as though interpreting this verse is a matter of faith. However, I do not hold the popular view that good people go to heaven and sinners go to hell. To me, this just isn’t rational.
1 UNLEARN The Lies, “About,” https://unlearnthelies.com/home/about/
2. UNLEARN The Lies, “Biblical truth about Life After Death (heaven, hell, and resurrection), YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42gVKzxmzIU
3. Thomas B. Falls. “The Dialogue with Trypho.” In The First Apology, The Second Apology, Dialogue with Trypho, Exhortation to the Greeks, Discourse to the Greeks, The Monarchy or The Rule of God (The Fathers of the Church, Volume 6), 276. Catholic University of America Press, 1948. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt32b2bk.6.
4. Wilson Paroschi, “The Significance of a Comma: An Analysis of Luke 23:43.” Ministry Magazine (June 2013).
5. Ibid.
6. Markus Bockmuehl, and Guy G. Stroumsa. Paradise in Antiquity : Jewish and Christian Views. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. 58-59. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=344588&site=ehost-live&scope=site
7. Williamson, Paul R.. Death and the Afterlife : Biblical Perspectives on Ultimate Questions. Westmont: InterVarsity Press, 2018. 58.
8. Bard D. Ehrman, “Today You Will Be With Me in Paradise?” The Bart Ehrman Blog, November 2018. https://ehrmanblog.org/today-you-will-be-with-me-in-paradise/