PARK

park (pardec; Septuagint paradeisos; compare Arabic firdaus): "I made me gardens and parks," the King James Version "orchards" (Ecclesiastes 2:5); "Asaph the keeper of the king's forest," the Revised Version margin "park" (Nehemiah 2:8). The same word occurs in Song of Solomon 4:13, "Thy shoots are an orchard (the Revised Version margin "paradise") of pomegranates." according to Liddell and Scott, paradeisos occurs first in Xenophon, who always uses it of the parks of Persian kings and noblemen. Like many other quadriliterals the word is undoubtedly of eastern origin. It seems to connote an enclosure. It is used in Septuagint of the Garden of Eden. Compare Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:4; Revelation 2:7.

See PARADISE .

Alfred Ely Day

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.