In the NT it is raised to still higher uses. The primeval Eden gives place to a ‘garden of God’ that is not of earth, the thought of the Paradise of the past is lost in the hope of a Paradise of the future, and the word becomes a name for the scene of rest and recompense for the righteous after death. Only the most s aring use, however, is made of it in the NT. While the idea which it expresses appears more frequently, the word itself occurs only in three passages—once in the Gospels (Lk 23%), once in the Epp. (2 Co 12‘), and once in the Apoc. (27). The history of the term suggests reasons for this remarkable abstention in the case
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of the NT writings. To understand the place which it has in these writings, and to define ite precise meaning in these few passages, it is neces- a Ὁ look into the course which Hebrew thought took on the subject of Sheol and a future existence after the close of OT prophecy, and into the con- dition of popular ΚΕ ΣῈ: belief in the times of Christ and the Apostles. It is of the greatest importance to know the ideas which had become connected with the term ‘ Paradise’ and its cog- nates in the various sections of Judaism.
In some cases ‘ Paradise,’ the ‘garden of Eden,’ and such terms, lost their objective meaning, and were made symbols of spiritual things. The tend- ency to idealize is seen, ¢.g., in Sirach, where the rivers of Eden become symbols of the streams of true wisdom (Sir 24*-), It appears, too, in the Psalms of Solomon, where we have the ‘garden οἱ the Lord’ and the ‘trees of life’ introduced as figures of the saints in their blessedness—é rapd- δεισος κυρίου, τὰ ξύλα τῆς ζωῆς ὅσιοι αὐτοῦ (143). Itis seen in its absoluteness in the philosophizing Judaism of Alexandria. To Philo himself ‘ Para- dise’ was a symbol of ἀρετή, or spiritual excellence. The spiritualizing method of interpretation, how- ever, was limited for the most part to that school, and was not of a kind to aflect popular Jewish thought to any great extent. The prevailing tendency was in the opposite direction. To what extremes of literalism and curious circumstan- tial definition it ran, and in what extravagant and incongruous speculation it indulged, can be gathered from the Rabbinical literature and from the Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphical writings.
Fancy ran riot in the Rabbinical schools on the subject of Paradise, its location, its extent, its glories, ete. The Rabbinical theology as it has come down to us exhibits an extraordinary medley of ideas on these questions, and in the case of many of them it is ditlicult to determine the dates to which they should be assigned. In some Rab- binical books omp is used for Paradise ; which has, however, the sense of ‘park’ in the Mishna and Targums. But the more frequent term is the OT 1}. The primeval garden of Eden was held by some to exist still, ee to lie in the distant east. Paradise was regarded as created before the world. In later Jewish theology it had seven names, and copious rhetorical Pree jean of its blessedness abounded. Two gates of rubies were said to lead into it. Beside them stand sixty myriads of holy angels, with countenances shining like the light of heaven. When a righteous man enters, the ves- tures of death are taken off him; he is clad in eight robes of the clouds of glory ; two crowns are placed upon his head—one of pearls and precious stones, another of gold of Parvaim ; eight myrtles are put into his hand; he is lauded and hailed with words of welcome, ete. (Jalkut Schim., Beresch. 20). It was believed also that in Paradise there are degrees of blessedness (Baba bathra 75a). Seven ranks or orders of the righteous were said to exist within it, and definitions were given both of those to whom these different positions belonged and of the glories belonging to each. Taking the literature as it is, it might appear that Paradise was regarded by some as on earth itself, by others as forming part of Sheol, by others still as neither on earth nor under earth, but in heaven ; while some also held that there were two Paradises —one in heaven, for those who are perfect in holi- ness, and one on earth, for those who come short of that. But there is some doubt as respects, at least, part of this. These various conceptions are found indeed in later Judaism. They appear most precisely and most in detail in the medieval
| Cabbalistic Judaism; in which also extravagant | descriptions are given of the relations of the earthly
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Paradise and the heavenly, the latter being de- clared to be sixty times as large as the lower earth (Eisenmenger, Lntd. Jud. ii. 297). But it is uncer- tain how far back these things can be carried. The older Jewish theology at least, as it is repre- sented in the Rabbinical literature, seems to give little or no place to the idea of an intermediate Paradise. It speaks of a Gehinnom for the wicked, and a Gan Eden, or garden of Eden, for the just. | It is questionable whether it goes beyond these conceptions and aflirms a Paradise in Sheol (cf Weber, Jiid. Theol. 244, etc.).