Tree of Life information

Genesis 2:,3:22,24—

  • Though the exposition given here may be a general meaning for these general terms, yet it is likely that this tree of life which was placed in the midst of the garden was intended as an emblem of that life which man should ever live, provided he continued in obedience to his Maker. (Adam Clark’s Commentary)
  • The tree of life; whose fruit would be to man, if obedient, a pledge of endless life.(Family Bible Notes)
  • so called from its symbolic character as a sign and seal of immortal life. Its prominent position where it must have been an object of daily observation and interest, was admirably fitted to keep man habitually in mind of God and futurity… This tree being a pledge of that immortal life with which obedience should be rewarded, man lost, on his fall, all claim to this tree; and therefore, that he might not eat of it or delude himself with the idea that eating of it would restore what he had forfeited, the Lord sent him forth from the garden. (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary)
  • There was the tree of life in the midst of the garden, which was not so much a memorandum to him of the fountain and author of his life, nor perhaps any natural means to preserve or prolong life; but it was chiefly intended to be a sign and seal to Adam, assuring him of the continuance of life and happiness, even to immortality and everlasting bliss, through the grace and favour of his Maker, upon condition of his perseverance in this state of innocency and obedience. Of this he might eat and live. Christ is now to us the tree of life, (Re 2:7; 22:2), and the bread of life, Joh 6:48,53 (Matthew Henry)

Proverbs 3:18—

  • Wisdom allegorized as a tree of life– (Ge 2:9; 3:22) whose fruit preserves life, gives all that makes living a blessing.(JFB)

Proverbs 11:30—

  • The righteous are as trees of life; the fruits of their piety and charity, their instructions, reproofs, examples, and prayers, their interest in heaven, and their influence upon earth, are like the fruits of that tree, precious and useful, contributing to the support and nourishment of the spiritual life in many; they are the ornaments of paradise, God’s church on earth, for whose sake it stands. (MH)

Revelation 2:7—

  • To the church at Ephesus:
    • Good Qualities:
      • Patience
      • Can’t bear evil
      • Discerning about apostles
      • Labored and didn’t faint
    • Bad Qualities:
      • Left first love
    • Admonition:
      • Remember where you had fallen and repent
      • Do the first works
  • “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”‘
  • From the promise that Christ makes of eternal life, I will give, a clear argument for Christ’s being God, essentially God; how is it else that he assumes to himself a power of dispensing eternal life? I will give to eat of the tree of life.

Revelation 22:2,14—

The harmonious unity of Scripture is herein exhibited. The Fathers compared it to a ring, an unbroken circle, returning into itself. Between the events of Genesis and those at the close of the Apocalypse, at least six thousand or seven thousand years intervene; and between Moses the first writer and John the last about one thousand five hundred years. How striking it is that, as in the beginning we found Adam and Eve, his bride, in innocence m Paradise, then tempted by the serpent, and driven from the tree of life, and from the pleasant waters of Eden, yet not without a promise of a Redeemer who should crush the serpent; so at the close, the old serpent cast out for ever by the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, who appears with His Bride, the Church, in a better Paradise, and amidst better waters (Re 22:1): the tree of life also is there with all its healing properties, not guarded with a flaming sword, but open to all who overcome (Re 2:7), and there is no more curse.(JFB)