Paradise

A term borrowed from the Persian language and means "garden of God." The Hebrews used a different word for gardens. They applied it to both everyday gardens and to God's garden in Eden (Genesis 2–3; Isaiah 51:3; Ezekiel 28:13). Later in their history, they borrowed the Persian word that eventually became "paradise." This word appears three times in the Old Testament. It refers to a park or orchard (Nehemiah 2:8; Ecclesiastes 2:5; Song of Solomon 4:13). When the Old Testament was translated into Greek, they used a Greek form of the same word. For Greek-speaking Jews, the garden in Genesis 2 became known as paradeisos.

The original Persian word meant an enclosed or walled garden, especially the royal parks of Persian kings. The Greeks understood it this way as well. This fits with the Hebrew idea of a garden where God walked (Genesis 3:8) and from which people could be excluded (Genesis 3:24). Key features of the Genesis paradise were its fruit trees and rivers.