is an Oriental word, first used by the historian Xenophon, denoting "the parks of Perisian kings and nobles." It is of Persian origin (Old Pers. pairidaeza, akin to Gk. peri, "around," and teichos, "a wall") whence it passed into Greek. See the Sept., e.g., in Neh 2:8, Ecc 2:5, Son 4:13. The Sept. translators used it of the garden of Eden, Gen 2:8, and in other respects, e.g., Num 24:6, Isa 1:30, Jer 29:5, Eze 1:31-9.
In Luk 23:43, the promise of the Lord to the repentant robber was fulfilled the same day; Christ, at His death, having committed His spirit to the Father, went in spirit immediately into Heaven itself, the dwelling place of God (the Lord's mention of the place as "paradise" must have been a great comfort to the malefactor; to the oriental mind it expressed the sum total of blessedness). Thither the Apostle Paul was caught up, 2Co 12:4, spoken of as "the third heaven" (2Co 12:3 does not introduce a different vision), beyond the heavens of the natural creation (see Heb 4:14, RV, with reference to the Ascension). The same region is mentioned in Rev 2:7, where the "tree of life," the figurative antitype of that in Eden, held out to the overcomer, is spoken of as being in "the Paradise of God" (RV), marg., "garden," as in Gen 2:8.
