The Meaning of Trees and Fruits
in Hebrew Scripture
in Hebrew Scripture
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
-From "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer
The Hebrews and Christian scriptures contain a wealth of literary symbols authors from different ages utilize as they intend to convey a hidden religious message.
Before entering into our discussion it is good to note that the religious and philosophical meaning of trees as a source of life, knowledge, rebirth, immortality and even love have roots throughout the world. Closer to the Jewish culture, ancient Egyptians believed Isis and Osiris to have came out of an acacia tree.
Before entering into our discussion it is good to note that the religious and philosophical meaning of trees as a source of life, knowledge, rebirth, immortality and even love have roots throughout the world. Closer to the Jewish culture, ancient Egyptians believed Isis and Osiris to have came out of an acacia tree.
Trees and fruits play an important position on the biblical imagery from Genesis to Revelations. From the first chapter of Genesis throughout all different types of literary and religious genres these two symbols convey messages from prophetic and moral, curses and blessings, and poetry to parables.
Their appearance throughout all these different types of messages have a reason.The authors of the Hebrew scriptures had a basic idea behind the utilization of these symbols.
By ascertaining the meaning of these two ubiquitous images we have a better chance to find the meaning of one of the most important stories within Jewish and Christian traditions: The story of Adam and Eve
The Trees
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Nevertheless the image of the Tree of Life appears several times, many times indeed.
Before going and examining the particular verses we can take a look at some significant uses of the symbol of the tree in the Bible.
The Image of the Tree and of Fruits Throughout the Bible
The first one appears in the Book of Daniel.
In Daniel 4 Nebuchadnezzar seeks Daniel's help in the interpretation of a vision he had been having while at bed that alarmed him.
Nebuchadnezzar's Dream
‘Now these were the visions in my mind as I lay on my bed: I was looking, and behold, there was a tree in the midst of the earth and its height was great.
The tree grew large and became strong
And its height reached to the sky,
And it was visible to the end of the whole earth.12
‘Its foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant,
And in it was food for all.
The beasts of the field found shade under it,
And the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches,
And all living creatures fed themselves from it.
And its height reached to the sky,
And it was visible to the end of the whole earth.12
‘Its foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant,
And in it was food for all.
The beasts of the field found shade under it,
And the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches,
And all living creatures fed themselves from it.
Then an angel descends from heaven and declares in very clear and dramatic terms how the tree would be cut and suffer for some time. Had Daniel approached the story giving a literal interpretation to the trees in the Garden of Eden as most exegetes in the Christian tradition have, the result could have been disastrous for him. Fortunately, God revealed the meaning to him; the textual records of Hebrew scriptural imagery could have helped him.
Daniel's interpretation of the vision can teach us a thing or two about Judaic symbolical language.
He tells the King of Babylon that the tree represents the king himself. Daniel then goes on to explain the meaning of the rest of the ominous message brought by the angel.
In this vision the tree represents the king of Babylon. Then a tree in the different genres of scripture could refer to a person in certain special occasions.
Can we find other verses that reinforce this correlation?
Many, indeed.
Let me begin in my favorite place, the words of Jesus.This occasion offers us an opportunity for linking a parable of Jesus with the story of the Garden since both symbols are utilized.
Matthew 7:15-19
Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
In this parable the relationship between tree and fruit is that between character and action. Bad trees that bear bad fruits represent the false prophets.
Can this meaning be of any significance for understanding the relationship between the forbidden fruit and its tree?
Mark 8: 24
In the city of Bethsaida Jesus once healed a blind man. He places his hands on him twice for the miracle to take place. After the touching him once, the blind man could not see perfectly as he tells Jesus that "I see men, for I see them like trees, walking around." Though men's heights and size of trees differ greatly, the blind men made the comparison as if it would be one readily accepted by Jesus, The use of trees as symbols to represent people seems to be culturally rooted.Luke 13:6- 9 In here Jesus gives the parable of the barren fig tree. This tree represents Israel.
6 And He began telling this parable: “A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. 7 And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree [a]without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’8 And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; 9 and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’”
What does it mean for Israel not to bear fruit? Why would the owner (God) had to cut it down (remove it from the special position that it had in God's providence)? Isn't Jesus criticizing Israel for failing to do its duty?
Paul echoes the parable of the chosen fig tree losing its position for its lack of faith and thereby the gentiles having the opportunity of becoming engrafted to the root of the tree; Abraham in Romans 11:17- 27
We can go now to the Old Testament and take a look at a few cases.
Book of Judges
Chapter 9 recounts the story of Jotham who offers a parable about a group of trees that decided to choose a king to rule over them. At first, they asked successively three different type of fruit trees, the olive, the fig, and the vine. Each of them refused. Finally the trees, the cedars of Lebanon, approach something that should not rule over them a thorn bush. Jotham intended to bring judgement upon his listeners for placing as their king someone unworthy after having killed all 70 brothers of Jotham, whom did have a legitimate claim to become king.
A third occasion comes from the beautiful poetic composition of love.
Song of Solomon (also known as the Song of Songs, or Canticles of Canticles indicating a supreme position, not in terms of skill of composition but of its contents), speaks of the love, sometimes with erotic images, between two lovers. The assumption is that the book refers to a bride and a bridegroom. Its inclusion in the "scrolls" of the Writings (Ketuvim) in the Hebrew Bible and among the Books of Wisdom in the Christian Bible has to do with the allegorical meaning given to it, as that of a relationship between God and Israel or Jesus and the Church, respectively. As it "celebrates and interprets human sexuality within a religious framework", this writing utilizes a group of nature imagery to describe the impassioned love between the bride and bridegroom.
For this study the Song has vital relevance since it alludes on 8 occasions to Eden by using the word "garden" (4:12, 15, 16 [2x], 5:1; 6:2 [2x]; 8:13) The idea behind its composition may be the ideological recreation of an ideal turn of events in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve would have established a family where true love dwells, one where the temple of God is the family unit and not just the individual. Thus 4: 7 describes the bridegroom having no blame on her. Another point that correlates the relationship between this couple and Adam and Eve appears in 4: 9 and 10 where the Song repeats the phrase "my sister, my bride." If sexuality that is pure and holy between a husband and wife is the ideal for which the people of this Song longs for, then, by implication, whatever actually happened in the Garden of Eden must be related to the opposite, or self-centered love. Impurity and irreverence, these two, lied behind the fall. The devaluing of love by rooting it on self-centered desires could be the only logical origin of the inhumanities committed throughout history, not the eating of a literal fruit. Eating "forbidden" fruits has not been the cause of the demoralization of the human character, being self-centered has.
Well, we find how this love poem relates to our subject in verse
2:3 “Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest,
So is my beloved among the young men.
In his shade I took great delight and sat down,
And his fruit was sweet to my taste."
This verse combines both of the images we are studying. Of course utilizing a simile to compare the tree with the 'beloved' facilitates interpreting the first part of this verse.
The second sentence creates a sexually charged metaphor.
After having compared the beloved to a an apple tree, the comment about eating his 'fruit' conveys a strong erotic sentiment. No one would ascribe to the tasting of this fruit a literal meaning.
Other books of the Bible identify men as trees.
2 Kings 14:9
Jehoash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, “The thorn bush which was in Lebanon sent to the cedar which was in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son in marriage.’ But there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trampled the thorn bush.
Psalms 52:8
But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God, I trust in the loving kindness of God forever and ever. Psalms 80: 8- 13
8 You removed a vine from Egypt; (the author has made Israel into a vine)
You drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground before it,
And it took deep root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shadow,
And [i]the cedars of God with its boughs.
11 It was sending out its branches to the sea
And its shoots to the River.
12 Why have You broken down its [j]hedges,
So that all who pass that way pick its fruit? (what is the fruit?; obviously is not a literal one)
13 A boar from the forest eats it away
And whatever moves in the field feeds on it.
Isaiah 5:1- 2
Let me sing now for my well-beloved
A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.
My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
2 He dug it all around, removed its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
And He built a tower in the middle of it
And also hewed out a wine vat in it;
Then He expected it to produce good grapes,
But it produced only worthless ones.
Then in verse 7 Isaiah explicitly identifies who is this vine, as if it was obscure.
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel
And the men of Judah His delightful plant.
Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.
Isaiah 10: 33-34
Behold, the Lord, the God of hosts, will lop off the boughs with a terrible crash;
Those also who are tall in stature will be cut down
And those who are lofty will be abased.
34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron ax,
And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One
Jeremiah 2: 21 Jeremiah repeats the image of Israel as a choiced vine that had turned bad.
“Yet I planted you a choice vine,
A completely faithful seed.
How then have you turned yourself before Me
Into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine?
Hosea 14:7 Let me sing now for my well-beloved
A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.
My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
2 He dug it all around, removed its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
And He built a tower in the middle of it
And also hewed out a wine vat in it;
Then He expected it to produce good grapes,
But it produced only worthless ones.
Then in verse 7 Isaiah explicitly identifies who is this vine, as if it was obscure.
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel
And the men of Judah His delightful plant.
Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.
Isaiah 10: 33-34
Behold, the Lord, the God of hosts, will lop off the boughs with a terrible crash;
Those also who are tall in stature will be cut down
And those who are lofty will be abased.
34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron ax,
Those also who are tall in stature will be cut down
And those who are lofty will be abased.
34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron ax,
And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One
“Yet I planted you a choice vine,
A completely faithful seed.
How then have you turned yourself before Me
Into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine?
Those who live in his shadow
Will again rise grain,
And they will blossom like the vine.
His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.
As we can see trees and fruits were taken seriously in the Jewish culture. The above are only a few instances of the image of a tree being used to represent a person or the nation of Israel in the Bible.
This should be enough for us in looking at the story of Adam and Eve with new eyes and asking ourselves if those trees likewise referred to people.
Do you know of any other verses where trees and/or fruits are used to represent humans and their actions?
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