“The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. With this unfortunate and rebel action, they condemned all men and women to wander through the world and to live with sin and pain. Sacred texts teach us that, by committing sins of pride and arrogance, the two ate the fruits provided by the other tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, even though God ordered them not to. Until Adam and Eve could feed on the fruits given by the Tree of Life, they were both immortal, untouched by the flow of time, old age nor sicknesses. It was a tree that God planted in the Garden of Eden, right next to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It appears in the Holy Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, and was present also in the Hebrew culture first, and Christian culture after, acquiring deeper and more spiritual meanings along the way. The tree of life deserves a special mention. We can think of the spruce of course, which we decorate every year for Christmas, and like every other evergreen, symbol of Christ resurrection and rebirth, but which was already present in previous civilizations such as the Celts and the Greeks, and associated to the concept of hope, new life and fertility. Or the olive, another symbol of Jesus and of the renewed alliance with men wanted by God, sanctioned by His death on the cross.

Let’s just think about the wheat seed, associated to the word of Christ and His own sacrifice, He, who died in the ground to be born again and give fruits, like a seed. We already explored this subject in a previous article, lingering on some of the 100 trees and plants cited in the Sacred Scriptures, and besides them, on how plants have been appointed with a deep religious meaning throughout times.

3 The tree of Life into different culturesĪll religions, since the origins of mankind, are somehow tied to trees.

2 The Tree of Life associated with the Cross.

Tree of life meaning