[citation needed] Exodus 24, Ezekiel 1, Isaiah 6, 2 Chronicles 18 and 1 Kings 22 describe God seated on a throne, with angels surrounding him.
[4] From about 300 BCE a newer Greek model largely replaced the idea of a three-tiered cosmos; the newer view saw the earth as a sphere at the centre of a set of seven concentric heavens, one for each visible planet plus the sun and moon, with the realm of God in an eighth and highest heaven, but although several Jewish works[which?]
The world to come is called Paradise, and it is said to have a double gate made of carbuncle that is guarded by 600,000 shining angels.
[21] When one enters Paradise, then one is proffered by the archangel Michael to God on the altar of the temple of the heavenly Jerusalem,[22] whereupon one is transfigured into an angel (the ugliest person becomes as beautiful and shining as "the grains of a silver pomegranate upon which fall the rays of the sun").
[21] Each day in Paradise, one wakes up a child and goes to bed an elder to enjoy the pleasures of childhood, youth, adulthood, and old age.
[21] Depending on one's merit, one joins one of the paradises: the first is made of glass and cedar and is for converts to Judaism; the second is of silver and cedar and is for penitents; the third is of silver and gold, gems and pearls, and is for the patriarchs, Moses and Aaron, the Israelites that left Egypt and lived in the wilderness, and the kings of Israel; the fourth is of rubies and olive wood and is for the holy and steadfast in faith; the fifth is like the third, except a river flows through it and its bed was woven by Eve and angels, and it is for the Messiah and Elijah; and the sixth and seventh divisions are not described, except that they are respectively for those who died doing a pious act and for those who died from an illness in expiation for Israel's sins.
[21] Beyond Paradise, according to Legends of the Jews, is the higher Gan Eden, where God is enthroned and explains the Torah to its inhabitants.
[21] The first compartment is for Jewish martyrs, the second for those who drowned, the third for "Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai and his disciples," the fourth for those whom the cloud of glory carried off, the fifth for penitents, the sixth for youths who have never sinned; and the seventh for the poor who lived decently and studied the Torah.