Comparing Paradise And Earth

Elevatis itaque Lot oculis, vidit omnem circa regionem Jordanis, quæ universa irrigabatur antequam subverteret Dominus Sodomam et Gomorrham, sicut paradisus Domini, et sicut Ægyptus venientibus in Segor. Quod terra Sodomorum et Gomorrhae, antequam deleretur, comparatur paradiso Dei, eo quod erat irrigua, et terrae Aegypti quam Nilus irrigat; satis, ut opinor, ostenditur quomodo intellegi debeat ille paradisus quem plantavit Deus, ubi constituit Adam. Quis enim alius intellegatur paradisus Dei, non video. Et utique si arbores fructiferae in paradiso virtutes animi accipiendae essent, sicut nonnulli exsistimant, nullo corporali in terra paradiso veris lignorum generibus instituto, non diceretur de ista terra: sicut paradisus Dei. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensi, Quaestionum in Heptateuchum, Liber I, Cap XXVII Migne PL 34 555

So Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the region of the Jordan, which was well watered everywhere before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha, like the paradise of God, and like Egypt approached by Segor. 1 Thus the land of Sodom and Gomorrha, before it was destroyed, is compared to the paradise of God, which was watered even as the Nile irrigates the country of Egypt, which is enough, I think, to show how that paradise which God planted should be understood when he created Adam. And how else someone else may understand 'the paradise of God' I do not know. And thus if the fruit bearing trees in paradise should be understood as the virtues of the soul, which not a few judge, there being nothing corporeal established in paradise with its varieties of green trees, it would not have been said concerning this earth: 'like the paradise of God.' Saint Augustine of Hippo, Questions on the Heptateuch, Book 1, Chap 27 1 Gen 13.10