Paradise: The Garden They Stole

The Most Important Word You Never Questioned

Where do good people go when they die?

Paradise.

The word rolls off the tongue. Christians use it. Muslims use it. Secular people use it. “It was paradise” means the best possible place or experience.

But where does this word come from?

Not Hebrew. Not Greek. Not Latin.

Persian.

The word “paradise” is pairidaēza — Old Persian for “walled garden.”

And its journey from Persian gardens to Christian heaven tells the entire story of religious theft in a single word.

The Etymology

The Original Persian: Pairidaēza

In Old Persian:

• pairi = around
• daēza = wall, enclosure

A pairidaēza was literally an “around-wall” — an enclosed garden.

Persian kings created these gardens as royal retreats — carefully cultivated green spaces in the arid landscape, walled to protect them from the desert. They were:

• Symbols of royal power
• Places of beauty and peace
• Designed with water features, plants, and shade
• The most desirable places on earth

Into Greek: Paradeisos

When Greeks encountered Persian culture, they borrowed the word: paradeisos (παράδεισος).

Xenophon (4th century BCE) used it to describe the gardens of Persian kings.

The word entered Greek meaning: an enclosed park, garden, or hunting ground — associated specifically with Persian royal culture.

Into Hebrew: Pardes

Hebrew borrowed from Greek (or directly from Persian): pardes (פַּרְדֵּס).

The word appears only three times in the Hebrew Bible:

• Song of Solomon 4:13 (an orchard)
• Ecclesiastes 2:5 (parks)
• Nehemiah 2:8 (the king’s forest)

In all cases, it means a physical garden or park — not a spiritual afterlife. The word entered Hebrew during or after the Persian period.

Into Theology: Paradise as Heaven

The transformation came in the intertestamental period (200 BCE – 100 CE):

Jewish apocalyptic literature began using “paradise” to describe:

• The Garden of Eden (original paradise lost)
• The heavenly realm (paradise to come)
• Where righteous souls go after death

By the time of Jesus, “paradise” meant the blessed afterlife.

Luke 23:43: “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Into Global Language

From Greek and Latin, “paradise” entered:

• English: paradise
• French: paradis
• German: Paradies
• Spanish: paraíso
• Italian: paradiso
• Arabic: firdaws (فردوس) — borrowed into the Quran
• And virtually every European language

The Persian word became the global term for the blessed afterlife.

What This Proves

1. The Concept Came with the Word

Words don’t travel alone. They carry concepts.

Before Persian contact, Hebrew had Sheol — the shadowy underworld where all the dead go, righteous and wicked alike. There was no “paradise.”

After Persian contact, Hebrew had pardes → and eventually a full theology of paradise as heavenly reward.

The word’s journey IS the concept’s journey.

2. The Timing Is Exact

“Pardes” enters Hebrew during the Persian period. The paradise-as-heaven concept develops after Persian contact. The word and the concept arrive together.

This is not coincidence. This is transmission.

3. Everyone Still Uses the Persian Word

2,400 years later, the entire world still uses the Persian word for the blessed afterlife.

Christians didn’t create a new term. Jews didn’t use a Hebrew word. Greeks didn’t invent one.

They all used — and still use — the Persian word.

Because the concept is Persian.

The Zoroastrian Paradise

In Zoroastrian Theology

When the righteous die, their souls cross the Chinvat Bridge (the Bridge of Judgment):

• If righteous: the bridge is wide, a beautiful maiden (their good deeds personified) guides them
• They ascend through the stars, moon, and sun
• They reach Garothman — the “House of Song,” the presence of Ahura Mazda

This heavenly realm is described as:

• Filled with light
• A place of peace and joy
• The presence of Ahura Mazda
• Reunion with righteous ancestors
• The reward for living by Asha

Before Judaism Had This

Pre-Exile Judaism had no comparable concept:

Sheol:

• Underground realm of shadows
• All the dead go there
• No reward or punishment
• No distinction between righteous and wicked
• “The dead know nothing” (Ecclesiastes 9:5)

The transformation from Sheol to Paradise happened during and after Persian contact.

The Garden of Eden Connection

Eden as Paradise

In later Jewish and Christian tradition, the Garden of Eden became identified with Paradise — the original blessed state from which humanity fell.

But in the original Genesis text, Eden is not called “paradise.” It’s called a gan (garden) — standard Hebrew.

The identification of Eden with Paradise came later — when the Persian word and concept had been absorbed.

The Structural Parallel

Compare:

The entire Eden narrative maps onto Persian garden theology — including the loss and future restoration.

Why This Matters

1. The Foundation of Afterlife Theology

When a Christian says “I’ll see you in Paradise”… When a Muslim says “the gardens of Firdaws”… When anyone imagines heaven as a beautiful garden of peace and light…

They are describing a Persian concept in Persian words.

The entire Western (and Islamic) theology of afterlife is built on a Zoroastrian foundation.

2. The Word Testifies

Languages preserve history. Etymology is archaeology.

The fact that every Western language uses a Persian loanword for “heaven” testifies to where the concept came from.

They could have made up a new word. They didn’t. They could have used Hebrew or Greek. They didn’t. They kept the Persian word because they took the Persian concept.

3. The Theft Is Recorded in the Dictionary

Open any dictionary. Look up “paradise.”

Etymology: from Greek paradeisos, from Persian pairidaēza, “enclosed garden.”

The evidence of borrowing is not hidden. It’s in every reference work. It’s taught in every linguistics class.

And yet somehow the implication — that the entire concept is Persian — never quite gets stated.

The Quran and Firdaws

Even Islam, which emerged 1,200 years after Persian contact with Judaism, uses the Persian word:

Quran 18:107: “Indeed, those who believe and do righteous deeds — they will have the Gardens of al-Firdaws.”

Firdaws (فردوس) is the Arabic form of the Persian word.

The Quran — revealed in Arabic — uses a Persian loanword for paradise. Because the concept came from Persia, and the word came with it.

The Complete Journey

Here is the word’s journey:

1. Pairidaēza — Persian royal garden (physical)
2. Paradeisos — Greek word for Persian gardens
3. Pardes — Hebrew word enters during Persian period
4. Paradise — Transforms into theological concept of heavenly reward
5. Paradise — Jesus uses it (Luke 23:43)
6. Firdaws — Arabic/Quran adopts the Persian word
7. Paradise — Every European language uses Persian loanword
8. Paradise — Global usage: 4+ billion people’s heaven is named in Persian

2,500 years. One word. One concept. One source.

Conclusion

The next time someone talks about Paradise, remember:

They’re using a Persian word. They’re describing a Persian concept. They’re imagining a Persian garden.

The word “paradise” is a confession embedded in language — an admission that can never be erased, because it’s in the dictionary, in the Bible, in the Quran, in every language.

Heaven is a Persian garden. The afterlife is Zoroastrian theology. The word proves it.

They stole the garden. They kept the name.

And every time anyone says “Paradise,” the theft is acknowledged — even if the speaker doesn’t know it.

The Persian word survives. The Persian origin survives. Asha survives in the vocabulary of the world.

Sources

Etymology

• Oxford English Dictionary — entry for “paradise”
• Klein, Ernest. Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language
• Brown-Driver-Briggs — Hebrew and English Lexicon (entry for pardes)

Zoroastrian Afterlife

• Boyce, Mary. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. Routledge, 1979
• Zaehner, R.C. The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism. Putnam, 1961

Development of Jewish Afterlife Concepts

• Segal, Alan. Life After Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion. Doubleday, 2004
• Wright, N.T. The Resurrection of the Son of God. Fortress Press, 2003

On Persian Gardens

• Moynihan, Elizabeth. Paradise as a Garden in Persia and Mughal India. George Braziller, 1979
• Hobhouse, Penelope. Gardens of Persia. Kales Press, 2004

At eFireTemple, we listen to what words confess. “Paradise” speaks Persian. The garden remembers its origin. Asha is written in the dictionary.