Wednesday, July 22 Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in Paradise.—Luke 23:43. In the earliest available Greek manuscripts, punctuation was not consistently used. Thus, the question arises: Was Jesus saying, “I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise”? Or was he saying, “I tell you today, you will be with me in Paradise”? Recall that Jesus had earlier told his followers: “The Son of man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.” (Matt. 12:40; 16:21; 17:22, 23; Mark 10:34; Acts 10:39, 40) So Jesus did not go to any Paradise on the day he and that criminal died. Jesus was “in the Grave [or “Hades”]” for days, until God resurrected him. (Acts 2:31, 32; ftn.) That dying criminal did not know that Jesus had made a covenant with his faithful apostles to be with him in the heavenly Kingdom. (Luke 22:29) Furthermore, that criminal had not even been baptized. (John 3:3-6, 12) Thus, what Jesus promised must be an earthly paradise that was to be fulfilled later. w18.12 6 ¶17-18, 20-21
It makes a difference where the comma is placed in this sentence - whether it is placed before the word "today" or afterwards. I guess that is all part of the translator's work - studying the text to get the sense of what the writer wanted to convey, and then placing the punctuation so that the sentence conveys that same meaning, in the English language.