1 Enoch 25:3

Pseudepigrapha

1 And he said to me: 'Enoch, why do you ask me about the fragrance of the tree, and why do you wish to learn the truth?' Then I answered him saying: 'I want to know about everything, but especially about this tree.' And he answered saying: 'This high mountain which you have seen, whose summit is like the throne of God, is His throne, where the Holy Great One, the Lord of Glory, the Eternal King, will sit when He comes down to visit the earth with goodness. 2 And as for this fragrant tree, no mortal is allowed to touch it until the great judgment, when He will take vengeance on all and bring everything to its consummation forever. It will then be given to the righteous and holy. 3 Its fruit will be food for the elect: it will be transplanted to the holy place, to the temple of the Lord, the Eternal King. 4 Then they will rejoice with joy and be glad, and they will enter the holy place; its fragrance will be in their bones, and they will live a long life on earth, such as your ancestors lived: and in their days, no sorrow or plague or torment or calamity will touch them.'

Revelation 2:7

New Testament

4 But I have this against you: You have departed from your first love! 5 Therefore, remember from what high state you have fallen and repent! Do the deeds you did at the first; if not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place—that is, if you do not repent. 6 But you do have this going for you: You hate what the Nicolaitans practice—practices I also hate. 7 The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will permit him to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God.

 Notes and References

"... The word paradise is one which is so familiar to most of us that its utterance evokes an immediate mental image of a beautiful garden where the righteous dwell for eternity. This image, while finding its roots in the biblical tradition, is influenced as much by Dante, Milton and many Christian paintings as it is by biblical traditions. In fact, it is hard to see the word paradise without bringing to mind those famous medieval and renaissance paintings of the Garden of Eden, Heaven and Hell. The problem of this Christian heritage is that it encourages a rather monochrome image of the nature of Paradise which runs contrary to the variety of image contained in texts from the biblical era. The purpose of this study is to examine the references 10 Paradise in texts from the biblical era and to explore the images evoked ..."

Gooder, Paula Eden and Beyond: Images of Paradise in Biblical and Extra-Biblical Literature (pp. 3-15) New Blackfriars, vol. 83, no. 971, 2002

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