[B-Greek] The Tree of Life in Rev. 22:2

Harold Holmyard hholmyard at ont.com
Wed May 10 13:44:54 EDT 2006


Dear Stephen,

>I'm having a hard time deciding what to make of this passage.  It says,
>
>(1) KAI EDEIXEN MOI POTAMON hUDATOS ZWHS LAMPRON hOS KRUSTALLON
>EKPOREUOMENON EK TOU QRONOU TOU QEOU KAI TOU ARNIOU (2) EN MESW THS PLATEIAS
>AUTHS KAI TOU POTAMOU ENEUQEN KAI EKEIQEN XULON ZWHS POIOUN KARPOUS DWDEKA
>KATA MHNA hEKASTON APODIDOUN TON KARPON AUTOU KAI TA FULLA TOU XULOU EIS
>QERAPEIAN TWN EQNWN.
>
>Modern translators or more likely to construe the phrase "EN MESW THS
>PLATEIAS AUTHS" in verse 2 with POTAMON in verse 1.  I don't suppose there's
>any other way to take the phrase "KAI TOU POTAMOU ENEUQEN KAI EKEIQEN" than
>as describing the Tree of Life, but this spawns my questions:
>
>1) Should we take the XULON as manifestly singular or should we understand
>it as referencing more than one tree, as a class (this sort of tree grows on
>either side of the river)?  This seems problematic to me, not only because
>the singular identification of the XULON here and in the following phrase
>(along with the singular pronoun AUTOU) undeniably give the impression of
>true singularity, but especially because the presumable allusion to the Tree
>of Life in the Garden of Eden would definitely suggest a single tree.
>
>2) This leads to this question.  How can one tree grow on two sides of a
>river, unless it somehow bridges it?  Is this tree seen as naturally being
>split near the ground so that the roots are split over the tree?  Is there
>some sort of vegetation that does this that XULON may refer to?  Does XULON
>in Koine ever refer to anything besides what we'd consider a tree (a bush,
>  
>

HH: Another way to understand the words is that the tree is in "the 
midst" of the street and the river, with one on one side of the tree and 
the other on the other side. It may seem a bit redundant in English, but 
EN MESW may not be as clear as English "in between." For MESOS conveys 
ideas like middle, midst, or center.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard




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