What is Paradise?

In the New Testament, the Greek word for “paradise” is paradeisos (παράδεισος). It comes from a Persian word which means “garden; park”. This Persian word was also borrowed into the Hebrew language as the word parḏēs (פַּרְדֵס), which occurs three times in the Jewish Scriptures (Ecc. 2:5; Song 4:13; Neh. 2:7–8).

Paradise in the Jewish Scriptures

It is popularly thought that paradise is not found anywhere in the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament). However, that is not true. In fact, the Christian concept of paradise actually came directly from the Jewish Scriptures!

As English-speaking Christians, we are very used to talking about the “Garden of Eden” because that is how it is called in our English Bibles (cf. Gen. 2:15; 3:23, 24). However, in the Septuagint, the Garden of Eden is never called the “Garden of Eden”. Rather, in the Septuagint, the Garden of Eden is called ho paradeisos, “the paradise”. The definite article refers to a specific paradise.

So, when the first Christians heard Jesus, the Apostle Paul, and the Apostle John talking about ho paradeisos, “the paradise”, they would have thought about the paradeisos from the Book of Genesis—what we call the garden of Eden!

The New Jerusalem: Paradise Restored

In Genesis 2:9 of the Septuagint, it is written that God planted the tree of life “in the middle of the paradise.” In Revelation 2:7, we find that the tree of life is “in the paradise of God.” Later on in 22:2, we find that the tree of life is in the New Jerusalem, which will be realized after the end time. This means that the New Jerusalem is the paradise of God, which is the garden of Eden from all the way back in Genesis 2–3.

When Adam disobeyed God and ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he lost the right to eat from the tree of life, and God expelled him from the garden of Eden to prevent him from eating from the tree of life (Gen. 3:22–24). Because Adam was our federal head (1 Cor. 15:22), we were likewise disqualified from eating from the tree of life.

Jesus Christ came as the Last Adam to restore to mankind what the First Adam had lost for them (1 Cor. 15:45). Therefore, all those who have Jesus Christ as their new federal head will be admitted—after the end time, at the coming of the New Jerusalem—into the paradise from which Adam was expelled, and given the right to eat from the tree of life which Adam had lost.