What exactly is "paradise"?

Is it heaven?





Luke 23:42-43





And he (the thief on the cross) said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.


And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.





So does that mean the thief is going to Heaven?





This is what confuses me...





After Christ was resurrected he appeared to Mary..





John 20:17





Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father:


but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.





Christ had not yet ascended to the Father (Heaven..)





So "paradise" can't be Heaven.. (Because he was in paradise "To day..")





Your thoughts?

What exactly is "paradise"?
The Christian writings are very equivocal when they talk about Paradise or Heaven. Some Christians seem to think that when you die you wake up in Heaven immediately. But in other writings it seems more like you stay in your grave until judgement day, then you are resurrected and judged, and -then- go to heaven.





'Paradise', the word, originally meant an enclosed garden. Perhaps it was once meant as an earthy place, like the Garden of Eden. Maybe it was the wrong word for Jesus to use. Maybe he didn't use it, maybe the word was chosen by the author of John (not John himself).





You have to admit, considering that Christianity is all about being saved and going to heaven, like that's the whole basic purpose of it, heaven itself is very mysterious!
Reply:I think that paradise is heaven.


Jesus and the Father are one (the trinity) so if Jesus had not yet gone to heaven that doesn't necessarily mean that the thief had not.


This also make me think about the verse in 2 Thessalonians 4:16 where it talk about the end times and the rapture. It says that the Lord will come down and the dead in Christ will rise first.


So that could mean that we don't go to heaven as soon as we die but I also know that God is not bound by time. So there is no way to know but I believe that paradise is heaven.
Reply:Jesus used the Greek expression


 pa·ra′dei·sos when referring to the future earthly Paradise. “He said to him [an evildoer who was being impaled alongside Jesus and who expressed faith in Jesus’ coming kingship]: ‘Truly I tell you today, You will be with me in Paradise.’”








Why not a dwelling place for the righteous?





The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology states: “With the infiltration of the G[ree]k doctrine of the immortality of the soul paradise becomes the dwelling-place of the righteous during the intermediate state.” (Grand Rapids, Mich.; 1976, edited by Colin Brown, Vol. 2, p. 761) Was that unscriptural view common among the Jews when Jesus was on earth? Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible indicates that this is doubtful.—(Edinburgh, 1905), Vol. III, pp. 669, 670.
Reply:Hades has 3 parts. Hell and Paradise. Separating the 2 is the pit. The Old Testament saints who believed in the coming messiah went to paradise. The unbelievers went to hell. Some of the demons are kept in the pit.





When Jesus died He spent 3 days in paradise preaching, then took all the sainst to heaven. Now if someone dies believing, they go striaght to heaven.
Reply:It was a waiting place for the old testament saints. remember the poor beggar? He was there, while the rich man was in hell.


Jesus went there to preach to their spirits and tell them redemption had come and soon heaven's gates would re-open ,and then he would take them all to heaven.


It could be the catholic purgatory.
Reply:That's a good point.


My theory is, since heaven is eternal, time as we know it doesn't exist there. Your earthly self may not be aware of your heavenly self which could be "looking down" right now, watching your life play out from beginning to end. If that makes sense.
Reply:A very boring bureaucratical place, I do not wish to be part of.
Reply:Visit my farm and you will understand paradise.
Reply:The word paradise is used as a synonym for Heaven (2 Corinthians 12:4; Revelation 2:7). What we do know for sure is that there has always been a separation of believers and unbelievers (Luke 16:19-31). The righteous have always gone to paradise, the wicked have always gone to Hell (Hades). For right now, both heaven (Paradise) and Hell (Sheol) are “temporary holding places” until the day when Jesus Christ comes back to judge the world based on whether or not they have believed in Him. One day, all will be sent to their eternal destination. The wicked to the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15) and the righteous to a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21-22).

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