The Tree of Life

 This week we finish the book of Revelation in Come Follow Me.  I decided to read Revelation 22 in Greek to finish off my year of exploring the New Testament in Greek. You have to understand that I am not at all fluent reading Greek.  I have an app (Bible Vocab) I use that defines each word in each passage.  As I am reading along and don't know a word, I just look down at the definition. In Revelation, I can read about 50%- 75 % of the words without looking at the definition. So I was reading along hit verse 2 and read about the ξυλον ζωης. I know that  ζωης means "of life" but I looked down at the definition of ξυλον and in my mind translated the phrase as the "staff of life".  Later I was reading from the KJV and saw they translated it as the "Tree of Life." I know why they translate it that way.  When the idea of a "tree of life" is first introduced in Revelation 2:7, they talk about people eating of its fruit so it is understandable for it to be translated as a "tree", but in most of the New Testament ξυλον refers to something fashioned of wood. It is the word used in Acts whenever they say that Jesus was hung on the cross. The cross is the ξυλον.  When they talk about the good tree bringing forth good fruit in Matthew 7:17 the word they use is "δενδρον" which is the normal word for a living tree.  As I began to think about why John called the tree of life a ξυλον instead of a δενδρον as one would expect, it kind of blew my mind. 

John wrote the Book of Revelation as an ending to the story that started in Genesis.  He uses a lot of images from the creation and fall: the sea as a symbol of chaos, the serpent, the garden with the river running out of it, and the the tree of life.  In Genesis, God creates the world and it falls.  In Revelation God takes the fallen world, purifies it and returns it and us to our paradisical state. If John is equating the Tree of Life with a staff and with the cross, it pulls a whole bunch of symbols together that I didn't realized where associated with each other. 

1. The Tree of Life in the Garden is Jesus on the cross. It is through the atonement that we can have everlasting life.  We learn from Lehi's vision that the fruit of the tree is the Love of God (1 Nephi 8:12).  If the tree is the cross, then the fruit of the tree is Jesus' sacrifice, which is a manifestation of the love of God, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son (John 3:16).  

2. Aaron's staff was a symbol of Jesus. Moses used Aaron's staff to do miracles that lead the Hebrews out of the captivity of Egypt.  Likewise, Jesus' sacrifice on the cross allows all to escape the captivity of sin and death. 

3. Later, when the people of Moses were murmuring about who would be the priests among the Israelites, Aaron's staff budded, though long dead, showing which tribe should be the priests. So, like the staff, Jesus died, and came back alive again. It is God's power, through the resurrected Jesus, that makes the temple ordinances efficacious. 

The Tree of Life symbol is ubiquitous in almost all cultures.  I just had never associated it with the cross of Jesus before. 

What to do with the Book of Revelation

 For the last three weeks of Come Follow Me this year we are studying the book of Revelation. One of the podcasters I listened to, Nick Frederick, who has a guest on Follow Him, urged readers to read Revelation responsibly.  There have been, through the years, many extremists who have interpreted the symbols in the Book of Revelation in ways that lead to disaster.  People have seen this political leader as the "Beast" and that popular person as the "Prophet" and made decisions based on those assumptions that got people hurt. (you can listen to his podcast at time stamp 6:26 for specific examples).  

So how do we read Revelation responsibly?  One option is to completely disregard it or not read it at all. This is a safe option, but we get a hint from the Book of Mormon that the Book of Revelation is important.  In Nephi 14, Nephi sees a vision of the end of the world and Nephi is told not to write then end of his vision because it would be written by the Apostle John (v 27).  If Nephi saw the same kind of vision as John, and both where important disciples of Jesus, then perhaps it is important. 

I think the best way to read Revelation is as an assurance that God and Christ will triumph in the end.  It shows examples of patterns that were recorded in the Old Testament and then suggests that these patterns will be repeated over and over again until the end, when Jesus will win. As I read through the Book of Revelation this time I was amazed on how much it draws from Old Testament imagery.  I think there are really no new symbols in Revelation.  They are all taken from Old Testament writings, many from the later prophets, like Isaiah, and Ezekiel, but others from Genesis and Exodus. 

As an example think about the image of the pregnant woman in Chapter 12.  There is a woman who is about to have a child and a red dragon is threatening to devour her child as soon as it is born (v.1-4) The Child is born, but is is it caught up to a place of safety by a throne (v.5) The woman is whisked away to the wilderness where she is fed and protected (v.6).  Then the dragon made a flood (v.15), but the earth swallowed up the flood, so the dragon was angry and fought against the woman's descendants. 

If you have recently read the Old Testament, there is a lot of similarity between this story and the story of the Exodus.  The Egyptians were threatening to kill all the new babies.  Moses was born and taken to a place of safety by a throne.  The Hebrews fled toward the wilderness. A flood blocked their way, but the water was stopped and they went through in safety.  Later the "Dragon" or Egypt fought against the Israelites. 

Others have seen the woman in the story as Mary.  Harrod tried to kill her baby but she and Joseph were lead to Egypt. Jesus crossed through the waters of baptism to start his ministry, during which he fed and cared for his followers. Later Romans fought against Jesus' spiritual descendants. 

Still others see the woman as the church.  The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and Romans like Nero try to kill it before it even starts, but Paul and others bring it the "wilderness" through missionary work where it grows and becomes strong enough to face the dragon "Rome" and overcome it by converting Constantine. 

Which of these interpretations are correct? All could be correct and one might find other examples in history that fit the pattern. By giving the pattern, and showing how, in each case, right when things are darkest, the righteous triumph in the end, John gives the suffering saints of his time, and of times to come hope. 

One last note.  My favorite overview of the book of Revelation is the one done by the Bible project.  There are two short animated videos found here and here. I think he does a good job of showing how the Book of Revelation is a fitting end to the overreaching story of the whole Bible. 

Jesus' Brothers

 Recently in Come Follow Me, we read the epistles of James and Jude. Although scholars contest the authorship of these epistles, they are traditionally attributed to two of the half brothers of Jesus. If they were written by members of Jesus' immediate family, they could shed some light on the homelife of Jesus as he was growing up in Nazareth.

What do the scriptures say about Jesus' nuclear family? Not very much.  In Matthew 13:55-56 the residents of Nazareth were upset at Jesus' teaching and said, "Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?

Even though this is a short passage, we actually learn a few notable things from it.  First off, we learn that Jesus had four half brothers and at least two half sisters.  We can also guess that at the time of this event, Joseph, Mary's husband may have died, because he is not mentioned as being "with us".

We can also, I think, deduce that they were a very orthodox family.  All of the names of the brothers are from famous people or words from the Torah:  James is really יעקב or Jacob (The KJV changed all the Jacobs to James to please their patron, King James), Joses is יוסף or Joseph (Don't know why they translated it Joses here, and Joseph in Luke 2.  Both names are exactly the same in Greek) , Simon is שמעון which is the first word of the most famous prayer in the Torah, the Shema, and Judas, is, of course, יהודה or Judah. You can't get much more orthodox than that. 

We also learn that they were not on the lowest rung of the social ladder since Joseph Sr was a τεκτονος which is most closely translated as builder or artisan, and was a skilled laborer. They seem to have had enough money to send even their non-miraculous sons to Hebrew school instead of keeping them home to work with their father because both the epistles of James and Jude are full of references to the Torah. Remember that no one back then had a torah scroll in their home to study.  You could only study the Torah in a synagogue school, or with a master and both options cost money. 

Both also seem to have risen to positions of leadership in the church after Jesus' resurrection despite having doubted his messiahship before his death (John 5:5) because both of them have epistles included in the cannon and the epistles are written as from a leader to their congregations. 

If James and Jude are Jesus' half brothers, the things they emphasize in their epistles might have been reflections of what and how they were taught at home.  If so, Mary and Joseph must have been both strict and loving parents. Both epistles not only emphasize loving and serving others, but also the necessity of strict obedience. James said "Then when lust has conceived, it bringeth fort sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren" (James 1: 15-16).  Jude said, "But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before the apostles of our Lord, Jesus Christ; How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts...But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on you most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." (Jude 1: 17-18, 20-21).  There isn't any hint of softness toward sin in ether passage, but each ends with an exhortation and expression of love.