“Today you will be with me in paradise”
Luke 23:43
Foreign wordSettledJesus
Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise. (Luke 23:43 BSB)
* Greek: paradeisos, from a Persian word for a walled garden; here, God's own presence.
What it sounds like today
'Paradise' as a synonym for heaven, tropical connotations included.
The cultural key
Paradeisos is a Persian loanword meaning a walled royal garden or park, the enclosed pleasure-grounds of a king. The Greek Old Testament chose this word for the garden of Eden, and Jewish hope used it for Eden restored, the garden reopened to the righteous. So the dying thief, who asked only to be remembered 'when you come into your kingdom,' someday, receives royal garden language with a timestamp: today.
Recovered meaning
A condemned insurrectionist is promised the king's own garden, in the king's own company, before sundown. 'Remember me eventually' is answered with 'with me, today': the reopened Eden as a personal escort.
Parallels: Genesis 2:8 (LXX); Revelation 2:7