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NASB | John 20:17 Jesus *said to her, "Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.'" |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 20:17 Jesus said to her, "Do not hold Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.'" |
Bible Question:
Luke 23:43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” According to this verse, Jesus, after the cruxifiction, went to Paradise. My question is, If the Paradise is in the heaven, how can Jesus say “I have not yet ascended to the Father” (Jn 20:17)? Which one is He meaning in the verse? (1) He did in fact ascended to the Father in the Paradise between the death and the resurrection, but not permanently or officially yet. (2) The Paradise is not in the heaven. Not God but Abraham is living there (Luke 16). (3) Or something else? |
Bible Answer: Greetings 00123! There is much confusion over the various states of the dead. Here is an old post of mine that might help clarify some of your questions. ********** Greetings Meredith! Long time, no see my friend! :-) Allow me to explain my point, but first let me emphasis that I do believe in an eternal punishment in Hell for the wicked. The only problem is that the KJV (along with several other translations) translates four different words as 'hell'. This leads to much confusion over who is in hell, when, why, ect... Here are the four different words: In Hebrew (Sheol) and in Greek (Hades, Tartarus, and Gehenna). Allow me to briefly describe each term. 1) Sheol: Hebrew only uses one word to describe the state of the dead. This word can simply refer to death or the grave in general or it can refer to the spiritual status of all the dead. Prov. 9:18 says of Sheol - "But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of the grave." Thus, Sheol is a place where all the dead go. Ps. 9:17 says that Sheol is a place where the wicked go - "The wicked return to the grave, all the nations that forget God." However, even godly Jacob expected to go to Sheol according to Gen. 44:29 - " If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.?" And, Ps. 89:48 affirms that all men will go to Sheol - "What man can live and not see death, or save himself from the power of the grave? Selah" Thus, this Old Testament word is best translated as 'Death' or the 'Grave' and simply refers to the state of all men at death. It does not refer to what we think of as 'Hell' in the sense of an eternal place of conscience punisment. 2) Hades: This is the New Testament equivalent of Sheol. It has much the same meaning as did Sheol with one exception. That exception being that the New Testament fills the meaning out with the passage to which you refered. Thus, we discover in Luke 16:20-31 that there are compartments in Sheol/Hades. There is a place of punishment where the wicked go to await final judgement and there is a paradise side, Abraham's bosom, where the righteous go to await salvation. This paradise side is now empty. After the death of Christ, complete atonement was made for sin and all those who died 'in Christ' went to be with Him in Heaven. Notice that Jesus did not tell the thief on the cross that he would be with Him in Heaven today, becase Heaven was not available until after the resurrection of Christ. The wicked dead still go to the punishment side of Sheol/Hades and will remain there until the Great White Throne of Judgement. 3) Tartarus: This word is only found once in the Bible. 2 Peter 2:4 desribes it as a place where certain Angels were placed until judgement. Some believe that it may be a lower part of Sheol/Hades. 4) Gehenna: This word describes what we commonly think of as Hell. It is used 12 times in the New Testament and describes a place of punishment, fire, and condemnation. I believe that Gehenna is also refered to in Rev. 20:11-15, where it is called a 'lake of fire'. However, note that this passage teaches that those in Sheol/Hades will be judged and then place into the 'lake of fire'. Thus, no one is actually in Hell right now! This is part of the reason why it is unBiblical to say that Jesus descended into Hell after His death. He went into Sheol/Hades (or the Grave), where Scripture foretold that God the Father would not leave Him. He went to paradise (possibly the prison of 1 Peter 3:9), but there is not any Scripture which says that He went to Hell. Nor, did He need to go to Hell to suffer and complete our salvation as many in the WOF camp teach. Our salvation was fully accomplished upon the cross and on the cross alone. I hope this answers your question and clarifies my point! :-) Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |