Tree

Trees enter scripture in the garden Yahweh planted, run through the law, the wisdom literature, the prophets' visions, and the parables of Jesus, and reappear in the city of Revelation. The same word covers a literal cedar of Lebanon, an oak under which an angel sits, a planted righteous one, an empire seen in a dream, and the tree that bears fruit twelve times a year for the healing of the nations. The arc below follows the topic's natural movement from the two named trees of Eden out into Israel's life with trees, then into the figurative and prophetic uses, and back to the tree of life in the new city.

The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge

Two trees stand at the center of the garden Yahweh planted in Eden. "And [the Speech of] Yahweh God planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed" (Gen 2:8). "And out of the ground Yahweh God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen 2:9).

The prohibition is given to the second tree alone: "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will not eat of it: for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die" (Gen 2:17).

The serpent contradicts the warning, and the woman acts on a threefold seeing — food, delight, and the desire to be made wise:

"but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You⁺ will not eat of it, neither will you⁺ touch it, or else you⁺ will die. And the serpent said to the woman, You⁺ will not surely die: for God knows that in the day you⁺ eat of it, then your⁺ eyes will be opened, and you⁺ will be as God, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate" (Gen 3:3-6).

The interrogation that follows turns on the tree: "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you that you should not eat?" (Gen 3:11). Adam's reply names it again — "she gave me of the tree, and I ate" (Gen 3:12) — and Yahweh's word to Adam echoes it once more: "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying, You will not eat of it: cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life" (Gen 3:17).

The other tree, the tree of life, is now what must be guarded: "Look, the man has become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, so that he doesn't put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever--" (Gen 3:22). "So he drove out the man; and he caused the Cherubim, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to stay at the east of the garden of Eden to keep the way of the tree of life" (Gen 3:24). The expulsion is consistent: "therefore [the Speech of] Yahweh God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken" (Gen 3:23).

The eating becomes the way later writers locate the entry of death. "From a woman sin originated, And because of her we all must die" (Sir 25:24). "Your first father sinned, and your teachers have transgressed against my [Speech]" (Isa 43:27). "Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, for that all sinned" (Rom 5:12). "For since by man [came] death, by man [came] also the resurrection of the dead" (1 Cor 15:21). "And Adam was not beguiled, but the woman being beguiled has fallen into transgression" (1 Tim 2:14).

Trees in the Land and the Law

When Israel enters the land, trees are part of what is given and what is regulated. Every fruit tree planted "for food" carries a three-year period in which its fruit counts as uncircumcised, and "all the tithe of the land, of the seed of the land, of the fruit of the tree, is Yahweh's: it is holy to Yahweh" (Lev 19:23; Lev 27:30). No Asherah pole — a planted tree-emblem — may stand "beside the altar of Yahweh your God, which you will make for yourself" (Deut 16:21). And in siege warfare, fruit trees are protected: "you will not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them; for you may eat of them, and you will not cut them down; for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged of you?" (Deut 20:19).

Particular trees mark scenes in Israel's story. Jacob hides the foreign gods "under the oak which was by Shechem" (Gen 35:4). Israel encamps at Elim "where there were twelve springs of water, and seventy palm-trees" (Exod 15:27). Aaron's rod "for the house of Levi had budded, and put forth buds, and produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds" (Num 17:8). Joshua sets up his witness-stone "under the oak that was by the sanctuary of Yahweh" (Josh 24:26). The angel of Yahweh sits "under the oak which was in Ophrah" while Gideon threshes (Judg 6:11). Solomon's wisdom in trees runs "from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall" (1 Kings 4:33). Elijah collapses under "a juniper-tree" and asks to die (1 Kings 19:4). The exiles hang up their harps "On the willows in the midst of it" (Ps 137:2).

Jotham's parable in Judges treats trees as a polity: "But the olive tree said to them, Should I leave my fatness, which by me they honor God and men, and go to wave to and fro over the trees? And the trees said to the fig tree, You come, and reign over us" (Judg 9:9-10). Wisdom likewise translates trees into ethics: "Whoever keeps the fig tree will eat its fruit; And he who regards his master will be honored" (Prov 27:18).

The Righteous as a Tree

A recurring figure compares the righteous person — and Israel restored — to a planted, flourishing tree. The first psalm sets the pattern: "And he is like a tree planted by streams of water: its fruit it yields in season, and its leaf does not wither, and in all that he does, he prospers" (Ps 1:3). Jeremiah repeats it almost word-for-word: "For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green; and will not be careful in the year of drought, neither will cease from yielding fruit" (Jer 17:8).

The same image carries elsewhere: "The righteous will flourish like the palm-tree: He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon" (Ps 92:12). Restored Israel will be called "trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, that he may be glorified" (Isa 61:3). Hosea's promise — "His branches will spread, and his grandeur will be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon" (Hos 14:6) — and the Song's lover — "As the apple-tree among the trees of the forest, So is my beloved among the sons" (Song 2:3) — work the same figure into love and renewal.

Wisdom herself is named in this register: "She is a tree of life to those who lay hold on her: And happy is everyone who retains her" (Prov 3:18). And the bearing of fruit is the test: "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; And he who is wise wins souls" (Prov 11:30).

Sirach extends the figure to Wisdom's own self-portrait: "I was exalted like a cedar in Libanus, And like a cypress on the mountains of Hermon" (Sir 24:13); "I was exalted like a palm tree on the seashore, And as rose plants in Jericho; And as a fair olive tree in the plain; Yes, I was exalted as a sycamore tree by the waters" (Sir 24:14); "I, as a terebinth, spread forth my branches, And my branches were branches of glory and grace" (Sir 24:16). And of the fear of God: "The fear of God is as an Eden of blessing, And over all glory is its canopy" (Sir 40:27).

Yahweh's Trees and the Garden Restored

Some trees are claimed directly as Yahweh's planting. "The trees of Yahweh are filled [with moisture], The cedars of Lebanon, which he has planted" (Ps 104:16). In the wilderness restoration he names what he will plant: "I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, and the myrtle, and the oil-tree; I will set in the desert the fir-tree, the pine, and the box-tree together" (Isa 41:19). The eschatological reversal substitutes good growth for thorn and brier: "Instead of the thorn will come up the fir-tree; and instead of the brier will come up the myrtle-tree: and it will be to Yahweh for a name, for an everlasting sign that will not be cut off" (Isa 55:13).

Eden itself becomes the prophets' figure for what Yahweh will do for Zion. "For Yahweh has comforted Zion; he has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Yahweh; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody" (Isa 51:3). "And they will say, This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited" (Ezek 36:35). The reverse motion is just as available to the prophets: invading judgment makes the land "as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness" (Joel 2:3).

Ezekiel also looks back into Eden as a place of beauty assembled in a primal figure: "You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering" (Ezek 28:13). And in the parable of the great cedar, the trees of Eden envy what Yahweh has made beautiful: "I made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it" (Ezek 31:9). The same parable measures other trees against it: "The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it; the fir-trees were not like its boughs, and the plane-trees were not as its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like it in its beauty" (Ezek 31:8).

Trees as Symbol and Sign

Trees serve as standing symbols in prophetic vision. Nebuchadnezzar's dream-tree in Daniel images an empire that fills the earth:

"Thus were the visions of my head on my bed: I looked, and saw a tree in the midst of the earth; and its height was great. The tree grew, and was strong, and its height reached to heaven, and its sight to the end of all the earth. Its leaves were fair, and its fruit much, and in it was food for all: the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the birds of the heavens dwelt in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it" (Dan 4:10-12).

Ezekiel's planted seed becomes a willow figure for Judah's vassal kingship: "He also took of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful soil; he placed it beside many waters; he set it as a willow-tree" (Ezek 17:5). Zechariah sees "two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl, and the other on the left side of it" (Zech 4:3), a vision John reuses: "These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands, who stand before the Lord of the earth" (Rev 11:4). And in the Habakkuk-style trust: "For though the fig tree will not flourish, Neither will fruit be in the vines; The labor of the olive will fail" — yet the prophet rejoices (Hab 3:17).

Trees in the Teaching of Jesus and the Apostles

Jesus uses trees to test what is real. John the Baptist warns, "And even now the ax also lies at the root of the trees: every tree therefore that does not bring forth good fruit is cut down, and cast into the fire" (Luke 3:9). Jesus tells his hearers, "Look at the fig tree, and all the trees" — for they read the season by what the branches do (Luke 21:29). James presses the same logic about consistency: "Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Neither [can] salt water yield sweet" (Jas 3:12).

Paul takes the olive tree as a figure for the inclusion of the gentiles: "But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and became copartners with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree" (Rom 11:17).

The Tree of Life Reopened

What was barred in Eden is reopened at the end. Ezekiel's temple-river already anticipates it: "Now when I had returned, look, on the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other" (Ezek 47:7), and "by the river on its bank, on this side and on that side, will grow every tree for food, whose leaf will not wither, neither will its fruit fail: it will bring forth new fruit every month, because the waters for it issue out of the sanctuary; and its fruit will be for food, and its leaf for healing" (Ezek 47:12).

Revelation gathers the figure home. To the Ephesians: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God" (Rev 2:7). In the city by the river: "in the midst of her street. And on this side of the river and on that was a tree of life that bears fruit twelve [times per year], every month yielding its fruit: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations" (Rev 22:2). And the closing beatitude: "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right [to come] to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city" (Rev 22:14).