The importance of commas

Today at teacher's college we were given a list of tongue-in-cheek grammar rules, such as "Always proofread your work carefully to ensure you haven't any words out." At a certain point, however, we turned to discussion of everyone's favourite friend, the comma. Most people have heard that the unpunctuated phrase "woman without her man is nothing" can be punctuated to favour either sex ("Woman, without her man, is nothing." vs. "Woman. Without her, man is nothing.") and many have seen the book title "Eats shoots and leaves" (which could describe a panda bear or, if punctuated into "eats, shoots and leaves," could describe someone who got violent after he finished his meal). However, there is one situation brought up in class which was, to me, actually got me thinking.

When the book of Luke describes Jesus' crucifixion, he mentions that one of the criminals crucified on the same day mocked him while they were all hanging there, while a second criminal rebuked that criminal, recognized his own guilt, and asked, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." (Luke 23:42). Jesus' answer to that criminal is recorded in the TNIV in Luke 23:43 as "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise." See that comma (the one after "you")? Well, apparently it is under debate by some. If I remember right, there was no punctuation in the ancient Hebrew of the OT...I don't know if that was the case in the ancient Greek or whatever of the NT, but what if that were the case and the punctuation were added in after all the eyewitnesses were dead? It could then be easily argued (as some are indeed arguing) that the comma could just as well be moved one word to the right, making Jesus' words run thus: "Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise." All sorts of discussions about where Jesus was during the time between the crucifixion and the resurrection (if indeed He did experience any time during what was "that time" for us) and what happens to us when we die (do we go to heaven immediately? do we go there after everyone gets their pronouncement at Judgment Day? etc.) arise from this key difference in punctuation. Nevermind that all the other several "verily I say to you" examples in the KJV (which is what I searched at www.biblegateway.com) come without a "today"...maybe this was meant as an exception. I'm inclined to go with the interpretation that the comma should come after "you" rather than after "today," but I have to admit that that view doesn't make it easy for me to reconcile with that statement certain ideas I've heard that Jesus had to be in hell for the duration of His death (this view comes out of an interpretation of 1 Peter 3:19)...but perhaps that view is flawed. Ow, my aching head. I'm going to bed and going to try to sleep despite the stress over all the work I have yet to do; I need to be awake for practicum tomorrow, after all. G'night.