Luke 23:43 (Focus)

nick lunn nick_lunn at wycliffe.org
Mon Oct 7 16:32:50 EDT 2002


     
     AMHN LEGW SOI SHMERON MET'EMOU ESH EN TW PARADEISW
     
     'Truly I tell you today you shall be with me in paradise'.
     
     There are two ways to interpret this verse according to its information 
     structure. We can display these two ways simply as follows:
     
     
     (1) First option:-
     
     AMHN LEGW SOI         SHMERON    MET'EMOU ESH    EN TW PARADEISW
     
     Speech introduction    When         What            Where
     
     
     (2) Second option:-
     
     AMHN LEGW SOI SHMERON    MET'EMOU ESH   EN TW PARADEISW
     
     Speech introduction         What            Where
     
     
     To help us decide which of these is that which is most probably intended we 
     need to look at the thief's original question in v.42:-
     
      IESOU, MNHSQHTI HOTAN ELQHS EIS THN BASILEIAN SOU
     
     'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom' |
     
     Here we see that the structure is:-
     
     [Vocative]   What    When
     
     The vocative is an extra-clausal constituent and need not concern us here. 
     The basic utterence consists of a main clause, plus a circumstantial 
     clause. We note that the main clause contains both 'actants', that is, 
     - the agent (you = Jesus, encoded by means of the verbal suffix) 
     - the patient (me = thief). 
     'Remember me', says the thief. This is the thrust of his communication to 
     Christ.
     
     We need to ask ourselves which part of Christ's response corresponds to 
     the request of the thief. Clearly it is MET'EMOU ESH, 'you shall be with 
     me'. Here we have again both actants present - 'YOU shall be with ME'. 
     Does this not suggest that this is the thrust of Christ's response? The 
     thief says, 'Remember me', and Jesus answers 'You shall be with me', 
     implying that he would indeed be remembered. As the thief's request is 
     clause-initial, being the main assertion of his utterance, is it not 
     reasonable to suppose that Christ's response corresponding to this would 
     also be clause-initial? In both cases the main assertion comes first, 
     followed by a less prominent circumstantial clause/phrase. If this is a 
     correct analysis, this would give us:
     
     'Remember me             when you come into your kingdom'
     
     'You shall be with me    in paradise'
     
         What                  When/Where (Circumstance)
     
     The conclusion of this analysis is that 'today', SHMERON, forms no part of 
     the main proposition. Surely the greater thing is to be WITH CHRIST, the 
     day when this happens is peripheral in comparison. 
     
     I am reminded of 1 Thess 4:15-18:-
     
     15 For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are 
     alive, who are left until the COMING of the Lord, will by no means 
     precede those who have died. 
     16 For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's 
     call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, 
     and the dead in Christ will rise first. 
     17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the 
     clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so WE WILL 
     BE WITH the Lord forever. 
     18 Therefore comfort one another with these words. 
     
     Here is the Lord coming at the end of the age following which we will 
     'be with' him forever. Paul tells us to comfort one another with these 
     words, that is, with the fact that we shall always be with the Lord. 
     If the Spirit of the Lord inspiring Paul led him to offer present 
     comfort by means of a post-parousia event, would the same Lord offer a 
     different comfort to the dying thief? Just a thought.
     
     Nick Lunn
     
     
     
     
     
     
     




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