the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Tree (2)
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or TREE (ξύλον, Lat. lignum, arbor).—A poetic name for the Cross (Acts 5:30; Acts 10:39; Acts 13:29, 1 Peter 2:24; cf. Galatians 3:13; nowhere in Gospels). The name no doubt originated in the practice (cf. Joshua 10:26) of employing a tree in case of haste for the purpose of crucifixion* [Note: Lips, de Cruc. ii. v. Though ξύλον is rarely applied to live wood in classical Greek (see Liddell and Scott, s.v.), it is frequently so used in later and Biblical Greek; cf. Judges 9:8-15, Psalms 96:12; Psalms 104:16, Luke 23:31, Revelation 2:7; Revelation 22:2.] (cf. gallows-tree), but in mediaeval times it was explained by a quaint legend. As he lay a dying, it was said, Adam sent his son Seth to the angel that guarded Paradise, to crave a bough from the tree of life. The angel gave it, and Seth carried it to his father, but found him dead. He planted the bough upon his grave. In course of time, when Solomon was building the Temple, the tree was cut down, but it refused to be fitted into any part of the Temple, and was placed over a stream to serve as a bridge. By and by the queen of Sheba came with her gifts and offerings. Seeing the tree she would not walk over it, since she recognized that the Redeemer of the world would suffer on it. Long afterwards the Jews took it and cast it into a stagnant pool, which derived a miraculous virtue from its presence: an angel descended from time to time and troubled the water, and the first that stepped in after the troubling was healed (cf. John 5:4). There it remained until the time of our Lord’s Passion, when it was taken out of the pool and fashioned into the Cross on which He suffered.† [Note: Daniel, Thes. Hymnol, i. c. n.]
Much devout fancy was inspired by the term. It suggested a reference to the Cross in Song of Solomon 2:3; Song of Solomon 2:5, which runs thus in the Vulgate: ‘Sicut malus inter ligna silvarum, sic dilectus meus inter filios. Sub umbra illius, quem desideraveram, sedi: et fructus ejus dulcis gutturi meo. Fulcite me floribus, stipate me malis: quia amore langueo.’ The hymn-writers extolled the ‘arbor salutifera’ which bore such sweet and precious fruit. One says:‡ [Note: i. cxli.]
‘Fertilitate potens, O dulce et nobile lignum,
Quando tuis ramis tam nova poma geris.’
And in his exquisite Laudismus de S. Cruce St. Bonaventura says:§ [Note: ii. cxxii.]
‘Crux est arbor decorata,
Christi sanguine sacrata,
Cunctis plena fructibus;
Quibus animae eruuntur,
Cum supernis nutriuntur
Cibis in cœlestibus.’
The Fathers loved to contrast the first tree whose fruit brought death into the world, and the second tree whose ‘leaves are for the healing of the nations’ (Revelation 22:2). Cf. St. Jerome on Mark 15:23 ‘Hic figitur salus in ligno, ligno primo infixa est mors. Lignum primum lignum scientiae boni et mali est. Et secundum lignum boni tantum nobis et vitae lignum est.’ In Evangel. Nicodem. xxiii., after the ‘harrying of hell’ Hades says to Satan: ‘All that thou gainedst by the tree of knowledge (διὰ τοῦ ξύλου τῆς γνώσεως), by the tree of the Cross (διὰ τοῦ ξύλου τοῦ σταυροῦ) thou hast lost.’ See also art. Cross.
Literature—Reference may be made to ‘The Legend of the Cross’ in Baring-Gould’s Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, and to Farrar’s Christ in Art, p. 276.
David Smith.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Tree (2)'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/t/tree-2.html. 1906-1918.
