The Watchtower Society and John and Morton Edgar - A2Z.org

the repentent thief went, the moment he died, tojoin the Lord in heaven. But we have seen thatthe testimony cf the Scriptures is that all theApostles, martyrs, and other saints who have diedare waiting till the return of Christ to get th'eirreward. It follows, if the usual idea with regardto our Lord's reply is correct, that this thief mnsthave had the precedence of the Apostles and a11the holy martyrs. But our Lord Himself said toMary on the third day after his promise to thethief : " I am not yet ascended to my Father."Again, Peter, in Acts II., 27, draws attention to thewords of David in the 16th Psalm : " Thou wilt nctleave my soul in hell," but shows that David was cothere speaking of himself but, as the prophetic rnouthpieceof our Lord Jesus, he was foretelling thatJesus' soul went to hell, not to Paradise, but wouldnot remain there. I shall refer to this iater.When we enGuire into tlie matter, we find theexplanation very simple. Rotherham's translationof the passage does away with all difficulties. It isthis : " Verily I say unto thee to-day, with me shaltthou be in Paradise." He put the comma after" to-day," instead of before it. Has Rotherham anyjustification making this alteration? Yes,because when the Bible was written there mere nocommas. Punctuation was. not invented till someiour centuries ago. shortly after the invention ofthe art of printing. It is merely a lnoder~l convenienceto indicate that tkie writer wishes thereader to pause shortly at these places, and sohelp the understanding of what is written. Ifyou would like to prove that there is no ~unctuationin the ancient mauuscripts of the Bible, I adviseyou to visit the Rritish I\lusenm, and there you will1s