BIBLE DICTIONARY + WORD STUDY
How to read this: there is rarely one magic “true meaning” hidden behind an English word. A lexicon records a word’s semantic range. The intended meaning is narrowed by grammar, sentence, author, historical usage and context.
GREEK · G3857
paradeisos — paradise
παράδεισος, -ου, ὁ (an Oriental word, first used by Xen. of the parks of Persian kings and nobles) [in LXX chiefly for גַּן, Gen.1:8 ff., al.; also for עֵדֶן, Isa.51:3; פַּרְדֵּס, Neh.2:8, Ecc.2:5 ;] 1. a park, pleasure-ground, garden (LXX), an orchard (in π., see MM, ii, xviii; Deiss., BS, 148). 2. Paradise, the abode of the blessed dead: Luk.23:43, 2Co.12:4, Rev.2:7.† (AS)
3 tagged verse occurrences · see every occurrence →A Persian word (pardes), properly meaning a “pleasure-ground” or “park” or “king’s garden.” (See EDEN.) It came in course of time to be used as a name for the world of happiness and rest hereafter (Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 12:4; Rev. 2:7). For “garden” in Gen. 2:8 the LXX. has “paradise.”
Source: Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897). Historical dictionary wording reflects the scholarship and language of its era.
