Q= Questioner, JWA= Jehovah's Witness Answer, CA= Christian Answer.

Luke 23:43. “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Or is it, “Truly I tell you today, You will be with Me in Paradise.” ??? (the NWT)

Q. Do you see the difference between the two quotations above?

JWA. Oh yes! The NWT has properly moved the comma over one word, so as to convey the true meaning Jesus had in mind.

Q. Do you mean you have found an ancient document where the comma is as you have translated?

JWA. Oh no! There are no commas in the original Greek manuscripts, or any thereafter. Commas were added by translators to make meanings clear. The meaning of the standard text cannot be correct.

Q. And why is that?

JWA. Through study and reason and comparing of Scriptures, we have discovered that no one goes immediately to be with Jesus, for the body and soul die at death.

Q. So you have taken your belief and inserted it into a Bible text.

CA: Yes, it’s true, Witnesses teach that this man, whom we have called through the years “the thief on the cross,” was annihilated, and has not existed for 2000 years, but that he will live with the Lord in the Millennium. Jesus’ promise to him was just a generic one, that –eventually – they would meet up in the other world.

For the record, never in the New Testament, in whatever translation, is a comma placed like that. 71 passages say, as does this one, “Truly I say to you, (comma!) and then the verse goes on. Never is the comma moved in this way.

But it had to move here, and we all know why. JW doctrine has superseded common sense, universal practice in translation, and, of course, Christian doctrine. Paul would later add his affirmation of the wonderful truth expressed here when he would say, “Absent from the body… present with the Lord.”

This is our hope, our joy, lying on the death bed, heading to our execution for the cause of Christ, in an airplane crash or lost at sea: Soon I will be with the Lord!

Philipians 1:21-23. “I am torn between these two things. I desire to depart and be with Christ.” But NWT, “… for I do desire the releasing and the being with Christ…”

Q. Will Christians go immediately to be with Jesus when they die?

JWA. That is not our understanding, nor the understanding of Paul in such texts as these. He speaks of a process that involves “releasing” from the body, and then phase two, the actual “being” with Christ. No indication is given as to how much time passes between the releasing and the being.

CA: Marvelous. Christians stand in amazement at the clear-cut changes to the text accomplished by the NWT translators. The word here in Greek is “analusai”, infinitive form of the verb “analuo”, meaning to depart. Nearly every translator of this text uses “depart” or “leave.” What boldness has come upon the men who faced this Greek word and deliberately placed a word in the English text that more supports their assumptions.

Rev 6:9-11 “…I saw the souls of those…slain because of the Word of God, and because of their testimony, and they cried out… and there was given to them a white robe… they were told that they should rest for a little while longer until… their fellow servants.. who were to be killed… would be completed…”

Q. It seems, sir, in Revelation 6, that some people have died for Jesus Christ. What happens after death?

JWA. The body/soul ceases to exist at death. The soul is nothing more than the life of a person, not a separate entity. In most of the usages of the original Greek word translated “soul”, we have used the terms “person”, “creature”, “life”, etc, depending on the context. We also furnish a footnote when we do use the word “soul” with an explanation as I have just given. It is important to correct the errors of the past in this way.

Q. But here we have John actually enabled to see a life form after the body has been slaughtered in persecution. These souls are talking, receiving a robe of glory, told to rest. They are far from non-existent here, and far from sleeping. They seem to be carrying on life, without a body, but in anticipation of a new one to come.

JWA. What we see here is merely the fact that these dear people have poured out their lives on the altar of sacrifice for Jesus Christ. John is having a vision here and his words cannot be taken as literal. How could one put a literal robe on an invisible “soul”?

Q. Vision does not mean “unreal.” John is seeing realities of the heavenly realm. Invisibility is a matter of perspective. John saw something with a power granted from heaven. He saw life in a non-material setting. I do not see that it is difficult for God to put an immaterial robe on immaterial beings. It was God’s very breath that made man a living soul to begin with. Now the soul has returned to God, and John, who is walking in the immaterial himself at this juncture, sees it all and reports it to us.