![]() ![]() So then in the other trees he was provided with nourishment, in this one with a sacrament. and indeed God did not wish the man to live in Paradise without the mysteries of spiritual things being presented to him in bodily form. So then the tree of life also was Christ. And when the narrator mentioned them he was not employing figurative language, but giving an explicit account of things which had a forward reference that was figurative. ![]() ![]() Augustine of Hippo said that the tree of life is Christ:Īll these things stood for something other than what they were, but all the same they were themselves bodily realities. Saint Albert the Great taught that the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ, is the Fruit of the Tree of Life. Pope Benedict XVI has said that "the Cross is the true tree of life." Saint Bonaventure taught that the medicinal fruit of the tree of life is Christ himself. Or this may indicate that the tree of life is a vine that grows on both sides of the river, as John 15:1 would hint at. The river seems to feed two trees of life, one "on either side of the river" which "bear twelve manner of fruits" "and the leaves of the tree were for healing of the nations" (v.1-2). Revelation 22 begins with a reference to the "pure river of water of life" which proceeds "out of the throne of God". A similar statement appears in Rev 2:7, where the tree of life is promised as a reward to those who overcome. Access is then no longer forbidden, for those who "wash their robes" (or as the textual variant in the King James Version has it, "they that do his commandments") "have right to the tree of life" (v.14). It then reappears in the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, and most predominantly in the last chapter of that book (Chapter 22) as a part of the new garden of paradise. ![]() The tree of life first appears in Genesis 2:9 and 3:22-24 as the source of eternal life in the Garden of Eden, from which access is revoked when man is driven from the garden. See also: Tree of life (biblical) and Tree of the knowledge of good and evil § Christianity This myth can be considered as a prototype for the creation myth where living beings are created by Gods (who have a human form). Īnother related issue in ancient mythology of Iran is the myth of Mashyа and Mashyane, two trees who were the ancestors of all living beings. The near identity of the two in ritual significance is considered by scholars to point to a salient feature of an Indo-Iranian religion antedating Zoroastrianism. Haoma is the Avestan form of the Sanskrit soma. Sprigs of this white haoma were brought to earth by divine birds. The source of the earthly haoma plant is a shining white tree that grows on a paradisiacal mountain. It bestows essential vital qualities-health, fertility, husbands for maidens, even immortality. The preparation of the drink from the plant by pounding and the drinking of it are central features of Zoroastrian ritual. Haoma is another sacred plant due to the drink made from it. Because Ahriman is responsible for all evil including death, while Ahura Mazda is responsible for all good (including life). The two fish are always staring at the frog and stay ready to react to it. As a reaction, Ahura Mazda created two kar fish staring at the frog to guard the tree. Ahriman (Ahreman, Angremainyu) created a frog to invade the tree and destroy it, aiming to prevent all trees from growing on the earth. Gaokerena is a large, sacred Haoma planted by Ahura Mazda. In the Avestan literature and Iranian mythology, there are several sacred vegetal icons related to life, eternality and cure, like: Amesha Spenta Amordad (guardian of plants, goddess of trees and immortality), Gaokerena (or white Haoma) a tree that its vivacity would certify continuance of life in universe, Bas tokhmak (a tree with remedial attribute, retentive of all herbal seeds, and destroyer of sorrow), Mashyа and Mashyane (parents of the human race in Iranian myths), Barsom (copped offshoots of pomegranate, gaz or Haoma that Zoroastrians use in their rituals), Haoma (a plant, unknown today, that was source of sacred potable), etc. Tree of life on a rhyton from Marlik, Iran, currently at the National Museum of Iran. ![]()
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