Question:
Are paradise and heaven the same place? Are they the same in the Greek? Is there anything to lead us to believe that they are not the same?

Answer:
Yes, paradise and heaven are the same place, though they are not the same word in the Greek. (Paradise is the Greek word PARADEISOS; Heaven is the Greek word OURANOS.)

The word “paradise” is found only three times in Scripture, and in each instance the context confirms that the word paradise is used to describe heaven. Let us look briefly at each passage:

“And Jesus said unto him [the penitent thief], Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in PARADISE” (Luke 23:43). This promise to the newly saved thief was soon followed by these words of the Saviour to His Father in heaven, “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit,” and then we read that the Lord Jesus “gave up the ghost” (verse 46). Thus, it is clear that the spirit of the Lord Jesus went to the Father in heaven. So, it is equally clear that when the Lord Jesus promised the thief that he would be in paradise with Him that day, He was speaking of His spirit being with Him in HEAVEN. “How that he was caught up into PARADISE, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (2 Corinthians 12:4). In this passage, the Apostle Paul is describing the experience he had fourteen years before this writing when he was taken to heaven. That he is talking about heaven is made obvious from verse 2, “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell or whether out of the body, I cannot tell:God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the THIRD HEAVEN.” So here again we see the word PARADISE used to describe HEAVEN.

“To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the PARADISE of God” (Revelation 2:7). The “tree of life” is part of the “new Jerusalem,” which is a city in heaven prepared for God’s heavenly saints (see Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 21:2,10, and then Revelation 22:2,14). Thus the last reference with PARADISE in it is, like the other two, used to describe HEAVEN.

I have said more than once that PARADISE is a word used to describe HEAVEN. The word PARADISE is an Oriental word for a “park” or “pleasure-grounds.” In the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, the word PARADEISOS is used in Genesis 2:8 for the GARDEN of Eden. To the Oriental mind, the word PARADIESOS is equivalent to supreme bliss. HEAVEN will indeed be PARADISE (supreme bliss) for all who, by the grace of God, enter into it.