The cross and the tree of life

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It is no coincidence that our Lord chose to be crucified on a wooden upright cross, which in the Greek New Testament is referred to as xulon, meaning “wood” or “tree”, and is clearly an allusion to the Tree of Life that was in the Garden of Eden. God inspired the authors of the Old Testament to use tree imagery for this reason, as an allusion to the cross, and the cross is an allusion to the Tree, a feedback loop which God perfectly set up from the beginning. The cross is the true Tree of Life, those who eat from it will live forever. Revelation 2:7
 
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Interesting observation.

I always assumed the cross related to the Tree of Knowledge, because that is the tree that brings death (Gen 2:17).

Not to mention, the cross was used in pre-Christian religions as a symbol of sexual union, and the Tree of Knowledge has similar sexual significance (e.g. the root word for “knowledge”, ידע, is also used to refer to intercourse [Gen 4:1], and as Augustine observed, lust was a consequence of eating its fruit).

Though, I’ve read some commentaries that claim the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge share the same roots. So maybe, at the end of the day, it’s all the same. 🙂
 
I don’t think it had to do with sex. The word- “yada”, I believe-has to do with any directly received or experienced knowledge. We can learn about a city, for example, by touring it for ourselves. Then we have direct, “intimate“ knowledge as opposed to just head knowledge, etc.
 
Very apropos OP since on the Julian calendar Sept. 27th is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Sept. 14 Gregorian as seen here):

Come, all you people,* let us venerate the blessed Cross of the Lord* through which eternal justice came to us.* He who deceived Adam, the first man,* was conquered by a tree,* and the same who fettered the royal creation by his cunning* has been cast down into nothingness.* The venom of the serpent has been washed away* by the divine blood of Christ.* The curse of the rightful sentence was lifted* when the just Christ was condemned unjustly.* By God’s plan, death that had come from a tree* would be conquered by a Tree,* and suffering would be healed by the suffering of the Lord.* Glory to the active presence of Your providence in our lives, O Christ, our King.* Through it You have brought salvation for all,* for You are gracious and the Lover of mankind.

Readings

(1) Exodus 15:22-16:1; (2) Proverbs 3:11-18; (3) Isaiah 60:11-16

http://lit.royaldoors.net/?event_id1=4522
 
fhansen said:
The word- “yada”, I believe-has to do with any directly received or experienced knowledge.
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You’re correct. ידע, and its derivative דעת [“Daath”], are not only used in referring to sexual knowing or knowledge. They can refer to any type of experiential knowledge.

But as some commentaries have pointed out, the word for “evil” [“Ra”, רע] used in the name of the Tree also has sexual meanings:
Said Rabbi Jose: “Is not this sin synonymous with what is termed rasha [רשע, wickedness or wrongdoing]?”

“No,” replied Rabbi Jehuda, “for rasha is applied to intentional evil ere it becomes an actuality, but Ra refers to him who defiles himself by the dissipation of his vital powers and thus gives himself up to the unclean spirit called Ra. He who thus renders himself impure will never attain to the Divine Life nor behold the face of the Shekinah, whose disappearance from the world previous to the deluge was owing to the vice termed Ra.” – Zohar, Bereshit B, 395-396
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Is that conclusive? No. Ra is also used in some other contexts where a sexual meaning seems unlikely. But when you couple Daath with Ra, both of which have potential sexual meanings, along with lust (and shame at their nakedness) being a consequence of eating the fruit, it is suggestive of a sexual meaning behind the symbol of the Tree of Knowledge.
 
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White_Tree said:
I always assumed the cross related to the Tree of Knowledge, because that is the tree that brings death (Gen 2:17).
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God has a habit of inverting things. It’s like a chiasm. For example, the woman came from the man (the first Adam) in the beginning (Genesis 2:22), but in these final days it was THE man (the Second Adam, Christ) who came from THE woman. Likewise, in the beginning death came from a living nourishment (the fruit), but in these final days life comes from the death of the man.
 
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Good reading, Flesh had to enter heaven undefiled, for those awaiting from the time of Adam and Eve.
 
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Also in Acts 10:39 ‘And we are witnesses to all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree’ the Greek word for tree is used. It makes me think that the shape of the cross was closer to a tree, like those forked crosses popular in the Middle Ages.
 
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