The word itself, though it appears in the above form in the Song of Sol. iv, 13 ; Eccles. ii, 5 ; Neh. ii, 8. may be classed, with hardly a doubt, as of Aryan rather tlian of Shemitic origin. It first appears in Greek as coming straight from Persia (Xenoph. ut sup.), (ireek lexicogra- phers classify it as a Persian word (Julius Pollux, Ono-
PARADISE
653
PARADISE
mast, ix, 3). Modern philologists accept the same con- clusion with hardly a dissentient voice (Kenan, Lamjues Semitiques, ii, 1, p. 153). "The word is regarded by most learneil men as Persian, of the same signitication as the Hebrew (jdn. Certainly it Avas used by the Persians in this sense, corresponding to their darchen; but that it is an Armenian word is shown both from its constant use in that language and from its formation, it being compounded of two Armenian simple words, part and ses, meaning necessary (grains or edible kerbs. The Ar- menians apply this word, pardes, to denote a garden adjoining the dwelling, and replenished with the dif- ferent sorts of grain, herbs, and flowers for use and orna- ment" (Schrcederi Thesaur, Ling. Armen. Dissert, p. 56 Amsterd. 1711). With this E. F. C. Rosenmliller ac- cords {Bibl. Alierthumsh. vol. i, pt. i, p. 174) : " It corre- sponds to the Greek -Kapactiaoc, a word appropriated to the pleasure-gardens and parks witli wild animals around the palace of the Persian monarchs. The origin of the word, however, is to be sought with neither the Greeks nor tlie Hebrews, but in the languages of East- ern Asia. We find it in Sanscrit paradeshu, a region of surpassing beauty; and the Armenian /jarcZes, a park or garden adjoining the house, planted with trees for use and ornament." " A pa?-adise, i. e. an orchard, an arbore- tum, particularly of pomegranates, a park, a fruit-gar- den ; a name common to several Oriental languages, and especially current among the Persians, as we learn from Xenophon and Julius Pollux : Sanscrit, jmrdesha ; Ar- menian, purdez ; Arabic, Jirdatis : Syriac, furdaiso ; Chaldee of the Targums, put-desa" (Flirst, Concord. V. T. p. 920, Leipsic, 18-10). Gesenius (s. v.) traces it a step farther, and connects it with the Sanscrit 7;ara-f7efa= high, ■well-tilled land, as applied to an ornamental gar- den attached to a house. Other Sanscrit scholars, how- ever, assert that the meaning of pai'-de^a in classical Sanscrit is " foreign-country ;" and although they admit that it may also mean " the best or most exec I'u nt coun- try," they look on this as an instance of casual coinci- vlence rather than derivation. Other etymologies, more fanciful and far-fetched, have been suggested: (1) from Trapd and Stvui, giving as a meaning the " well-watered ground" (Suidas, s. v.) ; (2) from lidfju and SeTaa, a bar- barous word, supposed to signify a plant, or collection of plants (Joann. Damasc. in Suidas, I. c); (3) from N'ri n-i£), to bring forth herbs ; (4) D'ln mS, to bring forth myrrh (Lud\vig, De raptu Pauli in Farad. in Menthen's Thesaur. Theolog. 1702).
On the assumption that the Song of Solomon and Ec- clesiastes were written in the time of Solomon, the oc- currence of the foreign word ma}' be accounted for either (1) on the hypothesis of later forms having crept into the text in the process of transcription, or (2) on that of the word having found its way into the language of Israel at the time when its civilization took a new flight under the son of David, and the king borrowed from the customs of Central Asia that which made the royal park or garden part of the glory of the kingdom. In Neh. ii, 8, as might be expected, the word is used in a con- nection which points it out as distinctly Persian. The account given of the hanging gardens of Babylon, in like manner, indicates Media as the original seat both of the word and of the thing. Nebuchadnezzar con- structed them, terrace upon terrace, that he might re- produce in the plains of Mesopotamia the scenery with which the Median princess he had married had been familiar in her native countrj' ; and this was the origin of the KptpaarvQ irapuStiavg (Berosus, in Josephus, c. Ap. i, 10).
II. The Terrestrial Paradise (chiefly condensed from Winer). — 1. Biblical Description. — The name was orig- inally ap[)lied to " the garden of Eden" (Gen. ii, 8 ; iv, 16; comp. ii, 8), from the name of the region in which it lay ; an J^astern country, the first dwelling-place of the human race. It was watered by a river which passed out from the garden in four arms or branches
(Flebr. G'^^X'H, heads, i. e. streams, not springs), of which one, Pison, surrounded the land of Havilah, which was rich in gold, bdellium, and the stone shoham [see Onyx] ; the second, Gihon, surrounded the land of Cush [see Ethiopia]. The third, Hiddekel, flowed to the east of Assyria; and the fourth was the Euphrates; the last, being generally known, was not described (see Gen. ii, 10 sq.). Yet this account has been variously under- stood, Kosenmliller understanding by heads (D"TrN"i, V, 10), head-streams ; and Gesenius, the beginnings of dis- tinct rivers.