Tree of Life

Introduction

• Theōria• Ephrem Syrus (the Syrian), 4th century;

see Sebastian Brock, The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual World of St. Ephrem (1985; republished Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 1992)

• Gregory of Nazianus and Gregory of Nyssa, fourth century – the Cappadocians

• Wesleyan Quadrilateral

Cross as Tree

• Irenaeus, Against Heresies

• xylon

• Genesis 40.19, Joshua 8.29, 10.26, etc. Acts 3.31, 10.39, I Peter 2.24.

• Deuteronomy 21.22-3, 27.26.

• Gal.3.13.

• Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 86, Tertullian, Against the Jews 10.

Two Trees

• Genesis 3.22-4 • Genesis 2.16-17, 3.2-3, 2.9.• Peter Thacker Lanfer, Remembering

Eden. The Reception history of Genesis 3:22-24 (OUP 2012)

• Tryggve N. D. Messinger, the Eden Narrative. A Literary and Religio-Historical Study of Genesis 2-3 (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns 2007)

• Epic of Gilgamesh

• Myth of Adapa

• Theodoret, Questions on Genesis, 5th century

• Ephrem Syrus, Hymns on Paradise; ET Sebastian Brock, published by St Vladimir’s Seminary

References

• Proverbs 3.18, 11.20, 15.4, 13.12.• Psalm 1 & Matthew 7.17-20• Psalms of Solomon 14.3-4• Letter of Aristeas• Aramaic Targum Neofiti• I Enoch 10.18-22• IV Ezra 7.123 & 8.52• Revelation 2.7 & 22.1-2

• Irenaeus, Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching

• Hippolytus, Paschal Homily

The Tree in the Middle Ages

• The Tree. Symbol, Allegory and Mnemonic Device in Medieval Art and Thought, edited by Pippa Salonius and Andrea Worm (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols 2014)

• Annamieke R. Verboon, ‘The Medieval Tree of Porphyry, an Organic Structure of logic.’

• Marie-Pierre Gelin, ‘Stirps Jesse in capite ecclesiae: Iconographic and Liturgical Readings of the Tree of Jesse in Stained Glass Windows.’

• Bonaventure, Lignum Vitae, ET in Classics of Western Civilisation series.

• Pippa Salonius, ‘Arbor Jesse – Lignum Vitae: The Tree of Jesse, the Tree of Life, and the Mendicants in Late Medieval Orvieto.’

• Ulrike Ilg, Quasi Lignum Vitae: The Tree of Life as an Image of Mendicant Identity.’