According to Genesis 2:9, there stood in the midst of the Garden of Eden a “tree of life,” apparently by the side of the “tree of knowledge of good and evil.” Although Genesis 3:3 seems to presuppose but one tree there, Genesis 3:22 asserts that, after the primitive pair had eaten of the tree of knowledge, they were expelled from Eden lest they should put forth their hands and take of the tree of life and live forever. The view of the writer was that Eden contained a tree the magical power of the fruit of which conferred immortality upon him who partook of it, though YHWH prohibited mortals from partaking of this fruit.
A tradition of this tree lingered long in Israel. In Proverbs 3:16-18 the poet says of wisdom, “Length of days is in her right hand; . . . She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her,” a passage which clearly alludes to the primitive conception of a life-prolonging tree. Again, Proverbs 11:30 reads, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life”; and Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick; but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.” In Proverbs 15:4 it is said, “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life.” In the last three references the thought may not be so literal as in the first, but the use of the tree of life in this gnomic poetry is evidence that the tradition lived. In Ezekiel 47:12 also there seems to be an allusion to the tree of life. In describing the river which would flow out from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea the prophet says, “And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth newfruit according to his months.” In the New Testament, where this passage is quoted (Revelation 22:2), the tree is described as the tree of life.
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Author: Jewish Encyclopedia
Keywords: Tree Of Life
Source: Isidore Singer (editor), The Jewish Encyclopedia (12 Volumes), (1906).
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.