Paradise

The name paradise means a garden. Some have thought that the Paradise in which our first parents were placed was their spiritual state, enriched as it was with supernatural graces and gifts. Others maintain that Paradise was a place. St.Augustine thinks that Paradise means both the spiritual condition and the local habitation of our first parents.

Paradise must have been a place perfectly suitable for man, a dwelling place in exquisite accord with his state of innocence. It is reasonable to suppose that Paradise was a place of great beauty, a bright place, temperate in climate, and with purest atmosphere.

Man was placed in Paradise to work therein and to keep it (Gen. 2:15). Man’s labor there would have been a most pleasing activity, not burdensome nor fatiguing. This task was given to man as a blessing. It was to engage his attention, to keep him from idleness which might engender pride and sin. Laboring in Paradise, man would have been increasingly aware of its beauty and precious character; he would have been moved to love and thank God for it, and would thus have tended to continual watchfulness lest by sin he should lose so great a treasure.

Adam was placed in Paradise after he had been created (Gen. 2:15). But Eve was created in Paradise itself. Had these two remained faithful and innocent, their children would have been born in Paradise.