“take it up with the Fathers of the Church: they uniformly read the Scriptures as taking Paradise to be the same as the Paradise in Eden”
Given that they thought this, do you think the Fathers of the Church may have been wrong? Why would Jesus go to the Garden of Eden after his death? To hang out with the thief? What purpose would that serve? Were the Old Testament Saints in the Garden of Eden waiting entrance to heaven after the resurrection?
Paradise was separated from hell by a large chasm. How could this be the Garden of Eden?
I’m not arguing, just trying to apply a little logic.
Have you considered that reading the Scriptures in accord with the Fathers, who were formed by the same culture as the Holy Apostles makes it far more likely that you will get their meaning right than reading them on your own, or with the guidance of only of your fellow believers who grew up in a culture shaped by the rationalist ‘Enlightenment’?