Chapter I.
How difficult it is to discourse on paradise. However, its author, nature, location, and inhabitants are indicated; and the matter is translated into a sense of mystery.
And God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed (Gen. II, 8). The mention of paradise seems to arouse great interest in us, wanting to investigate and explain what paradise is, where it is, and what it is like, especially since the Apostle, whether in the body or out of the body, does not know, yet he says that he was caught up to the third heaven. And again, he says: I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago-- whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows-- was caught up to paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. For this I will boast, but for myself I will not boast, except in my weaknesses: for if I should want to boast, I would not be foolish: for I speak the truth. (2 Corinthians 12:5 and 6). Therefore, if this is such a paradise, that only Paul himself, or someone similar to Paul, while living in this life, could see it; nevertheless, whether in the body or out of the body, he cannot remember it; but he did hear words by which he was commanded not to disclose what he had heard: in what way then can we determine the location of this paradise, which we were not able to see: and even if we could see it, we would still be prohibited from revealing it to others? While Paul himself was afraid to boast about the lofty heights of his revelations, how much more diligently should we fear to investigate that which is even subject to danger? Therefore, we should not consider this paradise to be Hyle, and thus let it remain Paul's secret.
However, since here in Genesis we read that paradise was planted by God in the East, and there the man whom God formed was placed; we can now find the author of this paradise. For who else could have created paradise but the all-powerful God, who spoke and things came into being, never needing those things which he desired to be generated? Therefore, he himself planted the paradise of which Wisdom says: Every planting that my Father has not planted will be rooted up (Matthew 15:13). Good planting of angels, good saints. For saints are called under the fig tree and vine in that future time of peace, in which there is a type of angels (Micah IV, 4).
Therefore, paradise is a place with many trees, but these trees are fruitful trees, full of sap and virtue, as it is written: 'All the trees of the woods shall rejoice.' (Psalm 95:13) They are always blooming with the verdure of merits, like that tree which is planted near running waters, whose leaf never withers; because all its fruit is abundant in it. This, therefore, is paradise.
But the place in which it is planted is called pleasure. Hence also the holy David says: You will drink them from the torrent of your pleasure (Ps. XXXV, 9). For you have read: For a fountain rises out of Eden, which waters the garden (Gen., II, 10). These, then, are the holy trees, which are planted in paradise, and are watered by a kind of overflow of the torrent of the spirit. Of which he also says elsewhere: The impetuousness of a river makes the city of God joyful (Ps. XLV, 5). But that city which is above, Jerusalem, is free, in which various merits of the saints have flourished.
5. Therefore, in this paradise, God placed man, whom he formed. Understand also that he did not place the man who is according to the image of God, but rather the man who is according to the body. For the incorporeal is not in a place. However, he placed him in paradise like the sun in the sky, awaiting the kingdom of heaven, just as a creature awaits the revelation of the children of God.
Therefore, if paradise is where the shoots sprouted, it seems that paradise is the soul which multiplies the received seed, in which each virtue is planted, in which there was also the tree of life, that is, wisdom, as Solomon said (Wisdom 7:25): For wisdom is not born from the earth, but from the Father. For she is the radiance of eternal light, and a spotless mirror of the activity of God's power.