παράδεισος

From the study of Revelation 2:7

Range of meaning

A loanword from Old Persian (pairidaēza, 'walled enclosure'). It meant an enclosed park or orchard, especially a royal pleasure-garden with trees, water and game. In the Greek Old Testament it means 'garden', above all the garden of Eden. In later Jewish writings it means Eden restored or hidden: the dwelling of the righteous and the place of God's presence.

Against the English

Modern English 'paradise' calls up a vague 'heaven', a tropical resort, or any idyllic place. The original is concrete: the King's own garden, the Eden of Genesis, now reopened.

How it drifted

Over centuries the word came to mean a general state of bliss, and in popular usage a beauty spot. That loses the specific Eden-and-royal-park picture.

Used elsewhere in the period

Xenophon describes Persian kings' paradeisoi full of wild animals (Anabasis 1.2.7; Oeconomicus 4.13). The Hebrew loanword pardes appears in Nehemiah 2:8, Ecclesiastes 2:5 and Song 4:13. The Greek Old Testament uses παράδεισος in Genesis 2:8–3:24 and Ezekiel 28:13 and 31:8–9 ('the paradise of God'). Second Temple texts: Testament of Levi 18:10–11 (the coming priest 'will open the gates of paradise… and give the saints to eat from the tree of life'), 1 Enoch 24–25 (a fragrant tree given to the righteous after judgment), 4 Ezra 8:52 ('paradise is opened, the tree of life is planted'), Psalms of Solomon 14:3. NT: Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:4.

From the study of 1 Enoch 32:3

Range of meaning

A walled park or orchard full of trees, often a royal estate. The word came into Greek and Hebrew from Old Persian pairidaēza, meaning "walled enclosure". The Greek Bible uses it for the Garden of Eden. It later came to mean the dwelling of the righteous, but in the earlier texts that dwelling is still pictured as a garden somewhere real, often at the edges of the world or in the upper regions.

Against the English

Charles has "Garden", which is accurate but loses the sense of a king's park. Translations that say "Paradise" keep the Greek word, but modern readers tend to hear "heaven", meaning a place for souls beyond this world.

How it drifted

From later Jewish and Christian use, "paradise" gradually became just another word for heaven, a place without location where the blessed dead go. The older picture of a garden somewhere on the map dropped out.

Used elsewhere in the period

Xenophon describes Persian royal paradeisoi stocked with trees and game (Anabasis 1.2.7; Oeconomicus 4.13). Hebrew pardes appears in Nehemiah 2:8 (the king's forest), Ecclesiastes 2:5 and Song of Songs 4:13. The Greek Bible uses paradeisos for Eden in Genesis 2:8–3:24 and Ezekiel 28:13 and 31:8–9. In the New Testament it appears in Luke 23:43, 2 Corinthians 12:4 and Revelation 2:7. Elsewhere in 1 Enoch the "garden of righteousness" or "garden of the righteous" appears at 60:8, 60:23, 61:12 and 77:3, and Enoch is taken to live there (70:3; compare Jubilees 4:23). The Ge'ez word gannat is the ordinary Ethiopic word for a garden and for Eden.

From the study of Luke 23:43

Range of meaning

1. A walled park or pleasure garden, especially a Persian royal or noble estate with trees, water and animals. 2) In the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), the garden of Eden, "the paradise in Eden" (Gen 2:8–10), and any splendid garden. 3) In Jewish writings of the Second Temple period (the centuries around Jesus), the garden of God: Eden either preserved or restored. It was pictured either as the present home of the righteous dead or as the renewed world at the end, and sometimes placed in or near heaven.

Against the English

English "paradise" now usually means a tropical holiday spot, a state of bliss, or simply "heaven" in a general sense. The Greek word carried a definite picture: a cultivated garden belonging to a king, and specifically Eden, where humanity first lived with God and which was lost.

How it drifted

Over centuries of Christian use the word was absorbed into a general idea of "heaven". Later it was secularised into "any idyllic place", and the garden image faded from the word.

Used elsewhere in the period

Origin: Old Persian/Avestan pari-daēza, "walled enclosure". Xenophon describes the Persian kings' paradeisoi (Anabasis 1.2.7; Oeconomicus 4.13). The Hebrew loanword pardes means an orchard or park (Neh 2:8; Eccl 2:5; Song 4:13). Septuagint: Gen 2–3 (Eden); Isa 51:3 and Ezek 28:13; 31:8–9 ("the paradise of God"). Second Temple texts: 1 Enoch 32 and 60–61 (the garden of righteousness, where the elect dwell); Testament of Levi 18:10–11 (the messianic priest will "open the gates of paradise" and feed the saints from the tree of life); Psalms of Solomon 14:3 ("the Lord's paradise, the trees of life, are his devout ones"); 4 Ezra 7:36 ("the paradise of delight"). New Testament: 2 Cor 12:2–4 (Paul "caught up into paradise", parallel to "the third heaven"); Rev 2:7 ("the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God"). Josephus uses the word for the Eden garden (Antiquities 1.37).