The first mention of the word [in the New Testament] occurs in Luke, 23:43, where Jesus on the cross says to the penitent thief: “Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise”. According to the prevailing interpretation of Catholic theologians and commentators, paradise in this instance is used as a synonym for the heaven of the blessed to which the thief would accompany the Saviour, together with the souls of the righteous of the Old Law who were awaiting the coming of the Redeemer. In 2 Corinthians (12:4) St. Paul describing one of his ecstasies tells his readers that he was “caught up into paradise”. Here the term seems to indicate plainly the heavenly state or abode of the blessed implying possibly a glimpse of the beatific vision. The reference cannot be to any form of terrestrial paradise, especially when we consider the parallel expression in verse 2, where relating a similar experience he says he was “caught up to the third heaven”. The third and last mention of paradise in the New Testament occurs in the Apocalypse (2:7), where St. John, receiving in vision a Divine message for the “angel of the church of Ephesus”, hears these words: “To him that overcometh, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of my God.” In this passage the word is plainly used to designate the heavenly kingdom, though the imagery is borrowed from the description of the primeval Garden of Eden in the Book of Genesis.