The Heaven (Arabic: عليون Illiyyin, Hebrew: Araboth ערבות, Japanese: Tengoku 天国, Greek: the Eporanius Ἐπουράνιος, Sanskrit: Swarga स्वर्गं) is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. In many religions, heaven is the abode of God or the gods, as well as of high ranked figures of angels, deified humans, the blessed dead, and other celestial beings. In most cultures, Heaven is synonymous with order: it contains the blueprints for creation, the mandate by which earthly rulers govern, and the standards by which to measure beauty, goodness, and truth. In religious thought and poetic fancy, heaven is not only a place but also a state of being. As such it is characterized negatively as freedom from hunger, thirst, pain, deprivation, disease, ignorance, and strife and positively as complete contentment, perfect knowledge, everlasting rest, ineffable peace, communion with God and rapturous joy.
Alternative names[]
- Celestial Realm
- Celeste
- Empyrean
- Empyrean Heaven
- Empyreal Heaven
- Heavens
- Kingdom of Heaven
- Heavenly Kingdom
- Heaven of Heavens
- Heavenrich (archaic or rare)
- High Heaven
- Paradise (hyponym)
- Primum Mobile
- Providence
- Pure Land (hypernym)
Adjectives[]
- Celestial (the sky, Paradise)
- Empyreal (the sky, Paradise)
- Empyrean
- Heavenly (the sky, Paradise)
- Primal (Primum Mobile)
- Providental (Providence)
- Regal (Kingdom of Heaven)
- Royal (Kingdom of Heaven)
- Supernal (rare, the sky, Paradise)
Pragmatics[]
The heaven(s)/the Heaven(s) definite especially in the plural means God(s), angels, devas, the sky/the skies, space, the sphere (astronomy/cosmology, i.e. the atmosphere, the stratosphere, and the celestial sphere), but most translators miss that mistakenly think it just means the skies or Paradises.
In Dharmic faiths, Heaven (akasha) when assoicated with Papiyas and his manifestions (known as maras), it means a sky, and (Swarga) when associated to Indra and his manifestions known as indras or devas, it becomes a divine world which isn’t the direct equivalent of Paradise (Middle Eastern Heaven).
Etymology[]
Heaven is from Middle English heaven (sky, space, Cosmos, Universe, sphere, Firmament, ether, atmosphere, stratosphere, and Celestial sphere) from Old English heofon (sky, Firmament/welkin, ether, atmosphere, stratosphere, celestial sphere, Paradise, Empyrean/Heaven, air/wind, cloud, vault/ceiling, summit/mountaintop, loft, pure land, Celestial realm, space) eclisped ”rodor” with the same senses and sƿæjil (sƿæġil, sƿæȝil, sƿæᵹil, swajil, swæġil, swæȝil, swæᵹil, sƿejel, sƿeġel, sƿeȝel, sƿeᵹel, sƿejl, sƿeġl, sƿeȝl, sƿeᵹl, sƿæjl, sƿæġl, sƿæȝl, sƿæᵹl, swejel, sweġel, sweȝel, sweᵹel, swejl, sweġl, sweȝl, sweᵹl, swæjl, swæġl, swæȝl, swæᵹl) which also means the Sun.
Heaven is still used with its older meanings in derivations (heavens, heavenly, heavenliness, heaven-sent, heavenwards, heavenrich) and fixed phrases (see the trivia).
Heavenly is from Old English Heofonlic (Heavenly, skyey, Cosmic, Celestial, Paradisical, Fermamental, etherial, divine, angelic, lofty, spacial)
Origin[]
Formerly, many ancient cultures make the heavens or space, the home of their gods. Now, the word Heaven has gained a new sense besides the religious and historical sense of space which is either Providence or Paradise (by extension the afterlife where Paradise lies).
In popular culture[]
- Heavenly bodies in astronomy are named after Heavenly bodies in Christianity and Islam.
Trivia[]
- Besides using the word “Heaven” for “over-world” it’s also a double entendre expression for outer space, the universe, and the exosphere as in the Seven Heavens, the Kingdom of Heaven, and the gate of Heaven.
- The word “Heaven” is used to translate three concepts “a sky, a sphere, space”, “the abode of God or gods where the God’s Throne, Paradise, and the Perserved Tablet”, and “the water in between where the Coach lies, i.e. the Heavenly Chamber.”, in this wiki we use “Heaven” for the divine abode.
- The word for Heaven isn’t common in Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, either contemporary or older forms, instead the word for the sky or garden/paradise are used figuratively for Heaven. This page is for the sky of God (or gods) which is believed to be higher than the physical universe.