Topical Encyclopedia
Definition and Etymology:The term "Paradise" is derived from the Persian word "pairidaeza," meaning a walled garden or park. In biblical usage, it signifies a place of exceptional beauty and delight, often associated with the presence of God and eternal bliss.
Old Testament Context:While the specific term "Paradise" does not appear in the Old Testament, the concept is closely related to the Garden of Eden, described in Genesis as a place of perfect harmony and fellowship with God.
Genesis 2:8-9 states, "And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
New Testament Usage:In the New Testament, "Paradise" is explicitly mentioned three times, each time conveying a sense of heavenly bliss and divine presence.
1.
Luke 23:43 : Jesus, while on the cross, assures the repentant thief, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise." This statement indicates that Paradise is a place of immediate post-mortem fellowship with Christ, suggesting a state of blessedness after death.
2.
2 Corinthians 12:3-4 : The Apostle Paul recounts a vision of being caught up to Paradise, "And I know that this man—whether in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows—was caught up into Paradise. The things he heard were too sacred for words, things that man is not permitted to tell." Here, Paradise is equated with the third heaven, a realm of divine mysteries and revelations.
3.
Revelation 2:7 : In the message to the church in Ephesus, the risen Christ promises, "To the one who is victorious, I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life in the paradise of God." This reference connects Paradise with the eschatological hope of eternal life and restoration, reminiscent of the Garden of Eden.
Theological Significance:Paradise is often understood as the intermediate state for the righteous dead, a place of rest and joy in the presence of God, awaiting the final resurrection and the new creation. It represents the fulfillment of God's redemptive plan, where believers experience the fullness of life and communion with their Creator.
Paradise and Eschatology:In eschatological terms, Paradise is seen as both a present reality for those who die in Christ and a future hope for the consummation of God's kingdom. The imagery of Paradise in Revelation points to the ultimate restoration of all things, where the redeemed will dwell with God in a renewed creation, free from sin and death.
Conclusion:Paradise, as depicted in the Bible, is a profound symbol of God's promise of eternal life and fellowship with Him. It serves as a reminder of the original perfection of creation and the future hope of restoration through Jesus Christ.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
ParadiseThis is a word of Persian origin, and is used in the Septuagint as the translation of Eden. It means "an orchard of pleasure and fruits," a "garden" or "pleasure ground," something like an English park. It is applied figuratively to the celestial dwelling of the righteous, in allusion to the garden of Eden. (2 Corinthians 12:4;Revelation 2:7) It has thus come into familiar use to denote both that garden and the heaven of the just.
ATS Bible Dictionary
ParadiseA Greek word signifying a park, or garden with trees. The Hebrew word GAN, garden, issued in a similar way,Nehemiah 2:8Ecclesiastes 2:5 So 4:13.
The Septuagint uses the word Paradise when speaking of the Garden of Eden, in which the Lord placed Adam and Eve. This famous garden is indeed commonly known by the name of "the terrestrial paradise," and there is hardly any part of the world in which it has not been sought. See EDEN.
In the New Testament, "paradise" is put, in allusion to the paradise of Eden, for the place where the souls of the blessed enjoy happiness. Thus our Savior tells the penitent thief on the cross, "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise;" that is, in the state of the blessed,Luke 23:43. Paul speaking of himself in the third person, says, "I knew a man that was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter,"21 Corinthians 12:4. And inRevelation 2:7 22:14, the natural features of the scene where innocence and bliss were lost, are used to depict the world where these are restored perfectly and forever.
Easton's Bible Dictionary
A Persian word (pardes), properly meaning a "pleasure-ground" or "park" or "king's garden." (see
EDEN.) It came in course of time to be used as a name for the world of happiness and rest hereafter (
Luke 23:43;
2 Corinthians 12:4;
Revelation 2:7). For "garden" in
Genesis 2:8 the LXX. has "paradise."
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
1. (
n.) The garden of Eden, in which Adam and Eve were placed after their creation.
2. (n.) The abode of sanctified souls after death.
3. (n.) A place of bliss; a region of supreme felicity or delight; hence, a state of happiness.
4. (n.) An open space within a monastery or adjoining a church, as the space within a cloister, the open court before a basilica, etc.
5. (n.) A churchyard or cemetery.
6. (v. t.) To affect or exalt with visions of felicity; to entrance; to bewitch.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PARADISEpar'-a-dis (pardec; paradeisos):
1. Origin and Meaning:
A word probably of Persian origin meaning a royal park. SeeGARDEN. The word occurs in the Hebrew Scriptures but 3 times:Songs 4:13, where it is translated "an orchard";Nehemiah 2:8, where it is translated "a forest" (the Revised Version margin "park");Ecclesiastes 2:5, where it is in the plural number (the King James Version "orchards," the Revised Version (British and American) "parks"). But it was early introduced into the Greek language, being made specially familiar by Xenophon upon his return from the expedition of Cyrus the Younger to Babylonia (see Anab. i.2, section 7; 4, section 9; Cyrop. i.3, section 14). In Septuagint the word is of frequent use in translating other terms of kindred significance. The Garden of Eden became "the paradise of pleasure or luxury" (Genesis 2:15;Genesis 3:23Joel 2:3). The valley of the Jordan became `the paradise of God' (Genesis 13:10). InEzekiel 31:8, 9, according to Septuagint, there is no tree in the `paradise of God' equal to that which in the prophet's vision symbolizes the glory of Assyria. The figures in the first 9 verses of this chapter may well have been suggested by what the prophet had himself seen of parks in the Persian empire.
2. Use in Jewish Literatare:
In the apocryphal and pseudepigraphical literature the word is extensively used in a spiritual and symbolia sense, signalizing the place of happiness to be inherited by the righteous in contrast to Gehenna, the place of punishment to which the wicked were to be assigned. In the later Jewish literature "Sheol" is represented as a place where preliminary rewards and punishments are bestowed previous to the final judgment (see APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE; ESCHATOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT; and compare 2 Esdras 2:19; 8:52). But the representations in this literature are often vague and conflicting, some holding that there were 4 divisions in Sheol, one for those who were marryred for righteousness' sake, one for sinners who on earth had paid the penalty for their sins, one for the just who had not suffered martyrdom, and one for sinners who had not been punished on earth (En 102:15). But among the Alexandrian Jews the view prevailed that the separation of the righteous from the wicked took place immediately after death (see The Wisdom of Solomon 3:14; 4:10; 5:5, 17; Josephus, Ant, XVIII, i, 3; B J, II, viii, 14). This would seem to be the idea underlying the use of the word in the New Testament where it occurs only 3 times, and then in a sense remarkably free from sensuous suggestions.
3. Used by Christ:
Christ uses the word but once (Luke 23:43), when He said to the penitent thief, "Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise" (see ABRAHAM'S BOSOM (compare HADES)). This was no time to choose words with dialectical precision. The consolation needed by the penitent thief suffering from thirst and agony and shame was such as was symbolized by the popular conception of paradise, which, as held by the Essenes, consisted of "habitations beyond the ocean, in a region that is neither oppressed with storms of rain, or snow, or with intense heat, but that this place is such as is refreshed by the gentle breathin of a west wind, that is perpetually blowing from the ocean" (Josephus, BJ, II, viii, 11).
SeeESCHATOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
4. Other Forms and Uses:
Nowhere in His public teaching did Christ use the word "Paradise." He does indeed, when speaking in parables, employ the figure of the marriage supper, and of new wine, and elsewhere of Abraham's bosom, and of houses not made by hands, eternal in the heavens; but all these references are in striking contrast to the prevailing sensuous representations of the times (see 2 Esdras 2:19; 8:52), and such as have been introduced into Mohammedan literature. Likewise Paul (2 Corinthians 12:4) speaks of having been "caught up into Paradise" where he "heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter." SeeESCHATOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. But in2 Corinthians 12:2 this is referred to more vaguely as "the third heaven." InRevelation 2:7 it is said to the members of the church at Ephesus who should overcome, "I (will) give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God," where the Eden ofGenesis 2:8 is made the symbol of the abode of the righteous, more fully described without the words in the last chapter of the book. The reticence of the sacred writers respecting this subject is in striking contrast to the profuseness and crudity both of rabbinical writers before Christ and of apocryphal writers and Christian commentators at a later time. "Where the true Gospels are most reticent, the mythical are most exuberant" (Perowne). This is especially noticeable in the Gospel of Nicodemus, the Acta Philippi, the writings of Tertullian (De Idol. c. 13; De Anim. c. 55; Tertullian's treatise De Paradiso is lost), Clement of Alexandria (Frag. 51), and John of Damascus (De Orthod. Fid., ii, 11). In modern literature the conception of Paradise is effectually sublimated and spiritualized in Faber's familiar hymn:
"O Paradise, O Paradise,
I greatly long to See
The special place my dearest Lord
Is destining for me;
Where loyal hearts and true
Stand ever in the light,
All rapture thro' and thro',
In God's most holy sight."
LITERATURE.
The articles in the great Dicts., especially Herzog, RE; HDB; Alger, Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life; Schodde, Book of Enoch; Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. onLuke 23:43; Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of Immortality, 346;. For a good account of Jewish and patristic speculation on Paradise, see Professor Plumptre's article in Smith's D.B, II, 704;.
G. F. Wright
Greek
3857. paradeisos -- a park, a garden, aparadise... a park, a garden, a
paradise. Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine Transliteration:
paradeisos Phonetic Spelling: (par-ad'-i-sos) Short Definition:
Paradise...Strong's Hebrew
1521. Gichon -- "a bursting forth," one of the rivers of Eden...... Gihon. Or (shortened) Gichown {ghee-khone'}; from giyach; stream; Gichon, a river
of
Paradise; also a valley (or pool) near Jerusalem -- Gihon.
...Library
TheParadise of God
... TheParadise of God. TP... In theParadise of glory. Is the Man Divine; There my heart,
O God, is tasting. Fellowship with Thine. Called to share Thy joy unmeasured...
WhetherParadise is a Corporeal Place?
... OF MAN'S ABODE, WHICH ISPARADISE (FOUR ARTICLES) Whetherparadise is a corporeal
place? Objection 1: It would seem thatparadise is not a corporeal place....
The Beauty ofParadise.
... Theophilus to Autolycus: Book II. Chapter XXIV."The Beauty ofParadise.
God, then, caused to spring out of the earth every tree...
Whether Man was Created inParadise?
... OF MAN'S ABODE, WHICH ISPARADISE (FOUR ARTICLES) Whether man was created inparadise?
Objection 1: It would seem that man was created inparadise....
WhetherParadise was a Place Adapted to be the Abode of Man?
... OF MAN'S ABODE, WHICH ISPARADISE (FOUR ARTICLES) Whetherparadise was a
place adapted to be the abode of man? Objection 1: It would...
Whether Confession OpensParadise?
... OF THE EFFECT OF CONFESSION (FIVE ARTICLES) Whether confession opensparadise?
Objection 1: It would seem that confession does not openParadise....
OParadise! OParadise!
... No. 120 OParadise! OParadise! HEAVEN OParadise! OParadise! Father Faber From
a Slovak Hymnal Arr. by NAM. Moderato. 1. OParadise! OParadise!...
Whether Man was Placed inParadise to Dress it and Keep It?
... OF MAN'S ABODE, WHICH ISPARADISE (FOUR ARTICLES) Whether man was placed
inparadise to dress it and keep it? Objection 1: It would...
What was the Life inParadise, and what was the Forbidden Tree ?
... III."Philosophical Works. XX. What was the life inParadise, and what was
the forbidden tree ? 1. What then is that which includes...
ConcerningParadise.
... Book II. Chapter XI."ConcerningParadise.... Some, indeed, have picturedParadise
as a realm of sense [1785] , and others as a realm of mind....
Thesaurus
Paradise (6 Occurrences)... 8 the LXX. has "
paradise.". Noah Webster's Dictionary. 1. (n.) The
... entrance; to
bewitch. Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia.
PARADISE. par'-a-dis
...Cherubim (63 Occurrences)
... 1. As Guardians ofParadise: In Genesis 3:24 the cherubim are placed by God, after
the expulsion of Adam from the garden of Eden, at the east thereof, together...
Forest (67 Occurrences)
... parks"), and Cant. 4: 13, rendered "orchard" (RV marg., "aparadise"). "The
forest... origin signifying probably an enclosure. SeePARADISE....
Abraham's (34 Occurrences)
... To "be in Abraham's bosom" thus meant to enjoy happiness and rest (Matthew 8:11;
Luke 16:23) at the banquet inParadise.... See HADES;PARADISE. James Orr....
Garden (68 Occurrences)
... It is translated "orchards" in Ecclesiastes 2:5 the King James Version; Songs
4:13. SeePARADISE. Such gardens are still common throughout the Levant....
Heavens (548 Occurrences)
... The apostle Paul speaks of himself as caught up into "the third heaven," which he
evidently identifies withParadise (2 Corinthians 12:2). See HEAVENLY....
Uriel (4 Occurrences)
... 1878, 250), Uriel (Oriel) accompanied Michael when at God's bidding he wrapped the
bodies of Adam and Abel in three linen sheets and buried them inParadise....
Orchard (3 Occurrences)
... i.2, 7). See Nehemiah 2:8, "forest," margin "park"; Songs 4:13, "orchard," margin
"paradise" (of pomegranates); Ecclesiastes 2:5, "parks," the King James...
Park (2 Occurrences)
... Version margin "park" (Nehemiah 2:8). The same word occurs in Songs 4:13, "Thy shoots
are an orchard (the Revised Version margin "paradise") of pomegranates...
Bosom (47 Occurrences)
... closest intimacy. It may be regarded as equivalent to the "Paradise" of
Luke 23:43. See HADES;PARADISE. James Orr. BOSOM. booz'-um...
Resources
What is paradise? Is paradise a different place than Heaven? | GotQuestions.orgIs “Paradise Lost” by John Milton biblical? | GotQuestions.orgWhat did Jesus mean when He said, “Today you will be with me in paradise”? | GotQuestions.orgParadise: Dictionary and Thesaurus | Clyx.comBible Concordance •
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