Luke 23:43 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

To-day thou shalt be with me in paradise.— Bos has shewn that this expression, thou shalt be with me, μετ εμου εση — was the language used when inviting guests to an entertainment; and the word paradise originally signifies a garden of pleasure, such as those in which the Eastern monarchs made their magnificent banquets. Here it means the same as Abraham's bosom in the parable of Lazarus; and it was a common expression among the Jews for the mansion of beatified souls in their separate state. Thus the Targum on the 90th Psalm says, "May the pleasures of Paradise, or the garden of Eden, be from the Lord upon us." One of their prayers for a person at the point of death is; "Come ye who keep the treasures of Paradise, open ye the gates of Paradise to him, and salute him with peace." From our Saviour's using this expression of Paradise to him, it appears, that this dying penitent was a Jew. See the Inferences and the Reflections.