The Tree of Life

A single tree that runs from Eden, through 1 Enoch, to the New Jerusalem at the end of Revelation. The motif binds Hebrew Bible primeval history to Second Temple eschatology to Christian apocalyptic.

In Genesis

Two trees are named in Eden (Gen 2:9): the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve eat from the second. They are expelled from the garden specifically so they don't eat from the first:

"Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever — Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden." — Gen 3:22–23

Eden is sealed by cherubim and a flaming sword (Gen 3:24). The tree is left there, untouched, inaccessible.

In 1 Enoch

1 Enoch picks the tree up four hundred years later and asks: what eventually happens to it?

1 Enoch 24:4–25:5 — Enoch is shown a magnificent fragrant tree on the seventh mountain of paradise, a tree more beautiful than any of the others. He asks what it is. The archangel Michael answers:

"And as for this fragrant tree no mortal is permitted to touch it till the great judgement, when He shall take vengeance on all and bring (everything) to its consummation for ever. It shall then be given to the righteous and holy. Its fruit shall be for food to the elect: it shall be transplanted to the holy place, to the temple of the Lord, the Eternal King." — 1 En 25:4–5 (Charles 1917)

This is the eschatological recovery of Eden. The tree that Adam was kept from will be opened for the righteous at the final judgment. It will be transplanted into the eschatological Temple (note the Temple framing — characteristic of Second Temple eschatology).

1 Enoch 32:3–6 — In Enoch's tour to the east he sees the Garden of Righteousness and, in it, two great trees. The angel Raphael identifies one of them as the tree of wisdom, the tree from which Adam's parents ate. (The relationship between this passage and the Tree of Life in 1 En 24–25 is not entirely clear; the author may be combining two distinct Edenic-tree traditions.)

In Revelation

The tree returns at the end of the Christian canon:

"To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." — Rev 2:7

"In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." — Rev 22:2

The same tree, the same promise, the same reverse-Eden eschatology. Revelation's author (John of Patmos, c. 90s CE) was working in a tradition that runs straight through 1 Enoch — many scholars argue that Revelation 22's tree of life is directly inheriting 1 Enoch 25's eschatological tree.

Critical scholarship

The line runs:

Stage	Text	What it does
Gen 2–3	Eden — tree present	The tree is created and made inaccessible
1 En 24–25	Eschatology — tree reserved	The tree will be opened for the righteous at the judgment
Rev 2:7, 22:2	Apocalyptic Christianity	The reward to the saints is access to the tree

Annette Yoshiko Reed's Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity (Cambridge, 2005) discusses 1 Enoch's role in transmitting the Edenic tree to Christian eschatology. The Tree of Life is one of the clearest places where 1 Enoch is the bridge between the Hebrew Bible's primeval narrative and the New Testament's apocalyptic conclusion.

In other Second Temple texts

The Tree of Life recurs in:

4 Ezra 8:52 — promised to the righteous at the eschaton
2 Esdras 2:12 — "for them is opened paradise, the tree of life is planted"
Apocalypse of Moses 22:4 — Eve weeps for the tree from which she ate (Christian-era Latin/Greek expansion)
Testament of Levi 18:11 — "He shall open the gates of paradise, and shall remove the threatening sword against Adam"

Cross-references

1 Enoch 24 — the seven mountains and the tree
1 Enoch 25 — what the tree is for
1 Enoch 32 — the Garden of Righteousness and the tree of wisdom
Gen 6:1–4 (for the same primeval-history matrix)
Gen 2:9; 3:22–24 (Hebrew Bible source)
Rev 2:7; 22:2 (New Testament reception)