PARADISE ( OF.. Fr. paradis. from Lat. paradisus, from Gk. rapdaetcros, paradeisos, park, Paradise. from Av, pairida(za. inclosure). A word found in the Old Testament and in Creek writers from Xenophon on, as a term for the great hunting and pleasure parks of the Per sian kings. It is the word translated 'forest' in Nehemiah ii. S. and that rendered by 'orchard' in the Song of Songs iv. 13 and Ecclesiastes ii. 5; this original sense of 'park' appears in English literature. The word was adopted by the Greek translators of the Old Testament for the 'garden' in Eden (Gen. ii. 8, and in other biblical refer ences to Eden, q.v.). The later religious notion is bound up with the Jewish mystical thought concerning the Garden of Eden. This was sup posed to be still in existence in some remote and mysteriously inaccessible place (Gen. iii. 24), to which the apocalyptic thought of Judaism, from the second century B.C., added the notion that it was reserved as the future abode of the righteous. This thought is first fully developed by the Book of Enoch (q.v.) , which locates Paradise variously, in the west (like the classic Isles of the Blest), in the north (with the Mount of God). or in the east (with Genesis). Accord ing to this first stage of thought Paradise is a place of sensual delight. It was also the abode of the two saints who had been translated from this world. Enoch and Elijah. But the rapid development of eschatology grew impatient of waiting for the Day of Judgment for the decision of the fate of the dead, and in the first century B.C. Paradise became the intermediate abode of all the righteous. Yet a further step took place in the spiritualization of the idea. Just as
Jerusalem was supposed to be mystically pre served in the heavens until the day of redemption (cf. Rev. xxi.-xxii.), so was Paradise caught up into the celestial spheres, and thither the spirits of the faithful were conveyed upon death. This view appears at length in the Book of the Secrets of Enoch (or Slavonic Enoch. q.v.), which lo cates Paradise in the third of the seven heavens, and is represented in the New Testament by Luke xxiii, 43 (cf. xvi. 23 sqq.) and 11. Cor. xii. 2. At the same time there was uncertainty whether this was the final abode of the saints, Jewish theology requiring the Day of Judgment. In Revelations ii. 7 Paradise seems to be synony mous with heaven. Even in these spiritualized conceptions the imagery of the ancient Garden of Eden appears still in the Tree of Life and the Water of Life. The New Testament does not add to the idea of Paradise, hut the Christian doctrine of the return of Christ to consummate His kingdom developed the notion of Paradise as the place of departed saints, where they are sup posed to 'sleep in Jesus,' and at the same time to enjoy mystic fellowship with Him and with the saints on earth. In medieval theology these dis tinctions are exactly drawn, whereas in most Protestant theology the doctrine of Paradise remain; indistinct. and in popular Protestantism Paradise is equivalent to heaven. In Islam the crass Jewish notion of Paradise was taken over and still further sensualized: it remains a gar den full of all carnal delights. (See A1011AM