פרדס

Forms

פַּרְדֵּס (pardēs) noun, masculine^[1] Plural פַּרְדֵּסִים (Qoheleth 2:5), construct פַּרְדֵּס (Song of Songs 4:13).^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Median *pardēza- (“walled garden”), a shortened form of the Old Iranian word that also gave Avestan pairidaēza (“wall-enclosure”) and Persian پاليز (pālēz, “kitchen garden”).^[3][2] The Avestan word is a compound of pairi (“around”) and daēza (“wall”), cognate with Greek περί (perí) and τεῖχος (teîkhos, “wall”).^[4][5] The /ē/ of the Hebrew form shows that it was borrowed in the Achaemenid period, after the diphthong /ai/ had become /ē/.^[3] Sáenz-Badillos counts it among the Persian words of the Song of Songs, and holds that such words mostly reached Hebrew through Aramaic.^[6][7] Wiktionary takes it directly from Aramaic פַּרְדֵּיסָא (pardêsā), while Klein makes the Aramaic word a loan from Hebrew.^[8][4]

The same Iranian word was borrowed as Neo-Babylonian Akkadian pardēsu (“garden”), Classical Syriac ܦܪܕܝܣܐ (pardaysā), Ancient Greek παράδεισος (parádeisos) and Arabic فِرْدَوْس (firdaws).^[3][2][9] In Akkadian and in Xenophon, the first Greek author to use it, it names the parks of the Persian kings and nobles.^[3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

It occurs three times, all in the late books.^[1][2] In the Song of Songs the beloved's shoots are pardēs rimmônîm “an orchard of pomegranates” (Song of Songs 4:13), Qoheleth made himself gannôṯ ûp̄ardēsîm “gardens and parks” (Qoheleth 2:5), and Nehemiah asks for a letter to ʾāsāp̄ šōmēr happardēs ʾăšer lammeleḵ “Asaph, keeper of the king's park”, to supply timber (Nehemiah 2:8).^[1][11]

Semantic evolution

In Nehemiah the royal park is a wooded tract that gives timber, and HALOT translates it there “forest”; in the Song of Songs and Qoheleth it is a garden of fruit trees.^[2][3] Noonan explains both uses from the Achaemenid royal gardens, which served farming as well as pleasure and royal display.^[3] The Septuagint renders all three by Ancient Greek παράδεισος (parádeisos), the word it also uses for the garden of Eden,^[1][5] and the Vulgate has paradisus, pomarium and saltus.^[3] The Dead Sea Scrolls have it five times.^[12]

In later Hebrew pardēs also became a name for esoteric philosophy, and its letters were read as the initials of the four ways of interpreting Scripture: plain, allusive, homiletic and mystical.^[4][8] Modern Hebrew פרדס (pardés) means a citrus grove.^[4][13]

Timeline

• Late Biblical Hebrew – pardēs rimmônîm in the Song of Songs (4:13), with Qoheleth 2:5 and Nehemiah 2:8.^[1][6]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint renders it Ancient Greek παράδεισος (parádeisos).^[14][1]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – five uses in the Dead Sea Scrolls.^[15][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. a park, an enclosed garden of the king.^[2][3]
2. an orchard of fruit trees: pardēs rimmônîm “an orchard of pomegranates”.^[2][4]
3. a royal forest giving timber (Nehemiah 2:8).^[2]

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew פרדס (pardés)^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Clear Bible (2023–), MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (Westminster Leningrad Codex, with Greek alignment), github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-hebrew, CC BY 4.0
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. פַּרְדֵּס
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Noonan, Benjamin J. (2019), Non-Semitic Loanwords in the Hebrew Bible: A Lexicon of Language Contact, University Park: Eisenbrauns (Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic 14), p. 181
4. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. פַּרְדֵּס
5. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. παράδεισος
6. ^ a b Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 136
7. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 128
8. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
9. ^ Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. פַּרְדֵּס
10. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. παράδεισος
11. ^ Tawil, Hayim ben Yosef (2009), An Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew: Etymological-Semantic and Idiomatic Equivalents, Jersey City: Ktav, p. 303
12. ^ a b Abegg, Martin G.; Jacobs, Jarod; Roorda, Dirk (2022), The Dead Sea Scrolls, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2.0.2, github.com/ETCBC/dss
13. ^ Ellenbogen, Maximilian (1962), Foreign Words in the Old Testament: Their Origin and Etymology, London: Luzac, p. 136
14. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
15. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143