Paradise
Paradise and Abraham's bosom, both common Jewish terms of the day was adopted by Jesus to designate the condition of the righteous in the intermediate state. The blessed
dead being with Abraham were conscious and comforted. The dying thief was on that very day
to be with Jesus in Paradise. The Apostle Paul was caught up to the third heaven... into
Paradise.
Paradise, therefore, now denotes the immediate presence of God. When Jesus ascended on high he led a multitude of captives. When he descended first into the lower parts of the earth, evidently the Paradise division of Hades, He set free the saved spirit denizens of the underworld. Thus during the church age, the saints who die are immediately translated, absent from the body; at home with the Lord. The wicked by contrast are in Hades, awaiting judgment resurrection, one to the resurrection to life and the other the resurrection to condemnation.
Paradise is a pleasure ground, an allusion to the paradise of the Garden of Eden and figuratively, the abode of happy souls - heaven. Paradise is a Greek word signifying a park, or garden with trees and originally from a Persian word which means a walled garden. In the New Testament, Paradise is used for the place where the souls of the blessed enjoy happiness. "To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God."
[296, BD, 380, Revelation 2:7]
