παράδεισος

παραδείσου, ὁ (thought by most to be of Persian orion, by others of Armenian, cf. Gesenius, Thesaurus, ii., p. 1124; (B. D., under the word; especially Fried. Delitzsch, We lag das Paradies? Leipzig 1881, pp. 95-97; cf. Max Müller, Selected Essays, i., 129f)),
1. among the Persians a grand enclosure or preserve, hunting-ground, park, shady and well-watered, in which wild animals were kept for the hunt; it was enclosed by walls and furnished with towers for the hunters: Xenophon, Cyril 1, 3, 14; (1, 4, 5); 8, 1, 38; oec. 4, 13 and 14; anab. 1, 2, 7, 9; Theophrastus, h. pl. 5, 8, 1; Diodorus 16, 41; 14, 80; Pint. Artax. 25, cf. Curt; 8, 1, 11.
2. universally, a garden, pleasure-ground; grove, park: Lucian, v. h. 2, 23; Aelian v. h. 1, 33; Josephus, Antiquities 7, 14, 4; 8, 7, 3; 9, 10, 4; 10, 3, 2 and 11, 1; b. j. 6, 1, 1; (c. Apion. 1, 19, 9 (where cf. Müller)); Susanna 4, 7, 15, etc.; Sir. 24:30; and so it passed into the Hebrew language, פַּרְדֵּס, Neh 2:8; Eccl 2:5; Song of Solomon 4:13; besides in the Sept. mostly for גַּן; thus, for that delightful region, 'the garden of Eden,' in which our first parents dwelt before the fall: Gen 2:8ff; 3:1ff.
3. that part of Hades which was thought by the later Jews to be the abode of the souls of the pious until the resurrection: Lk 23:43, cf. 16:23f. But some (e. g. Dillmann (as below, p. 379)) understand that passage of the heavenly paradise.
4. an upper region in the heavens: 2 Cor 12:4 (where some maintain, others deny, that the term is equivalent to ὁ τρίτος οὐρανός in 2 Cor 12:2); with the addition of τοῦ Θεοῦ, genitive of possessor, the abode of God and heavenly beings, to which true Christians will be taken after death, Rev 2:7 (cf. Gen 13:10; Ezek 28:13; Ezek 31:8). According to the opinion of many of the church Fathers, the paradise in which our first parents dwelt before the fall still exists, neither on earth nor in the heavens, but above and beyond the world; cf. Thilo, Cod. apocr. Nov. Test., on Evang. Nicod. c. xxv., p. 748ff; and Bleek thinks that the word ought to be taken in this sense in Rev 2:7. Cf. Dillmann under the word Paradies in Schenkel iv. 377ff; also Hilgenfeld, Die Clement. Recogn. und Hom., p. 87f; Klöpper on 2 Cor 12:2-4, p. 507ff ((Göttingen, 1869). See also B. D., under the word; McClintock and Strong's Cyclopaedia, under the word; Hamburger, Real-Encyclopädie, Abtheil. ii, under the word.)