Here are some of the connections described by Griggs (my summary):
1) Small gold plates, engraved in Greek language and found in Italy, Sicily, Crete, and Macedonia depicting “the dead, wandering in the world of the shades, and [warning] them to avoid a destructive spring on their left, [but to keep to the right to find another spring] beside a white cypress tree. After pausing for refreshment and nourishment, the wanderers continue to the lake of memory, where after responding appropriately to questions posed by the lake guardians, [they] receive eternal memories and enter into the gods’ presence, [with those] successfully completing the journey becom[ing] gods themselves.”
The cypress tree is the tree of life and the spring nearby the spring of life. The other spring is the source of forgetfulness and punishment.
2) In Old Testament and Jewish writings:
– In the Adam and Eve’s exclusion from the Tree of Life included exclusion from God’s presence, and thus, whenever man regained God’s presence, a tree of life representation symbolized the reunion.
– The Lord spoke to Moses out of a bush that burned with fire but was not consumed.
– The rod of Aaron symbolized that God was with Moses and Aaron as it swallowed the rods of Egyptian magicians. Later the rod blossomed and bore almonds as a sign that the Lord chose the tribe of Levi to bear the priesthood.
– Messianic prophecies (Isaiah, Zechariah) speak of the Messiah in terms related to a tree of life. Christ is called the Branch, giving light and life to the earth.
– Zachariah also saw a vision of two olive trees on either side of the menorah (sacred lampstand) of the tabernacle. Most scholars see the latter as representative of the tree of life.
– In sacred but non-canonized Jewish literature, when Enoch traveled to the Seven Sacred Mountains, he saw a sacred tree similar to a date palm but more beautiful and grand than he had seen before. His guide told him that the fruit of the tree could not be eaten by mortals unitl they were purified after the judgement and that they would have to enter the temple to partake. In the Secrets of Enoch, the seer is shown the heavenly dwelling place, where stand the tree of life. In the Testament of Levi, Enoch prophecies that in the last days the Lord shall open the gates of paradise and give to the saints to eat from the tree of life, and the spirit of holiness shall be upon them. Ezra is promised that in the last days is opened Paradise, and plant4d the Tree of Life. Jewish literature often portrays the tree of life as the seat of an oracle of God, as source of inspiration as well as nourishment, and a scared sanctuary apart from worldly cares and dangers.
3) Other Ancient Near Eastern Cultures
– In a famous Mesopotamian epic, the hero Gilgamesh undertakes a long journey to find the plant that gives life. His guide takes him to the washing place, to wash off his grime in water clean as snow, then he is dressed in a cloak to clothe his nakedness and a band is placed upon his head. He then passes through the great waters to obtain the plant whereby a man may regain his life’s breath. He is frustrated in his quest by a serpent which drags the plant away. In a similar Sumerian legend, again about the story of the tree of life in the creation of the universe, Gilgamesh is given by a goddess a magical drum and drumstick made from the tree of life which is in her garden. The hero loses them to the world of the dead. An Akkadian myth tells of a shepard who to bless his people needs an heir, and with the aid of an eagle, flies to heaven to obtain the “plant of birth” to cure his childlessness. Other wrings tell of Eridu, whose earthly abode is in a tree, so that the branches, used to sprinkle holy water, have therapeutic value. A commentator states that sacred tree is everywhere the abode of a God, or is guardian of the temple.
4) Ancient Egypt
– Countless examples of the tree of life symbol, found in representations of the lotus plant and the papyrus, in numerous artifacts, lotus being the symbol of rebirth and regeneration. The Egyptians frequently depicted life emerging from these plants. w.
– The Ished, a persea tree, grew in the temples, and ritual required each Pharaohs name at his coronation ceremony. A small statue shows Ramses making an offering to the gods, while kneeling on the leaves and branches of the sacred Ished tree, with his names and deeds to be inscribed on leaves of this tree.
– Egyptian coffin covers often depict the deceased eating and drinking from a tree of life, and out of which the goddess Nut is growing. In one figure she is offering food and drink to a man, who needs nourishment as he wanders through the dark netherworld.
– Other artifacts show divine beings refreshing the pharaohs with fruit of the tree of life. A pond or stream of sacred water often lies near or under the tree, with the God of writing inscribing the name of the king on the tree. Partaking of the tree is a sacramental act, symbolizing unity with the gods; this is not available to mortals in ordinary circumstances, but is found only in rituals relating to eternity.
5) Ancient Greece
– The tree of life is a common mythological symbol of religious ritual. It is the sacred palm in a golden cup from Minoan Crete. Vases show the god of fertility or nature, Dionysius, kneeling before a palm or pouring a sacred offering or libation on a palm growing out of an altar.
– Ancient Greek literature is replete with references to a sacred tree, or tree of life. In the epic The Odyssey, the hero sees a tree growing out of the alter of Apollo, different from any other tree on earth. Apollo’s mother grasps a palm tree during his birth. The newborn god is then washed with water and wrapped in a new white garment. Stories also tell of Athenians visiting the oracle of Delphi during the Persian Wars to dedicate a bronze palm tree with golden fruit to Athena.
– Often the sacred tree was an olive, not a palm. The token Odysseus used to identify himself to his wife is their marriage bed, carved from a great olive tree still rooted in the ground. Later the olive tree on the Acropolis, believed to have been planted there by the goddess Athena, was thought be the source for all olive trees in Attica. The victors of the Olympic games were crowned with branches and leaves from an olive tree growing near sacred altars at Olympia. The games represented the ritual process of obtaining the tree of life, similar processes being described in many ancient cultures. In Greek mythology, Heracles exemplified this process in his twelve labors, which would secure him eternal life. In the last two, he descends into Hades, and acquires golden apples from the sacred grove of the Hesperides. He accomplishes all his tasks but has to give the apples back to his heavenly guardians, because it is not proper for a mortal to have the sacred fruit.
6) The New Testament and Early Christian Writings
– While the tree of life was an enduring symbol in the ancient world, with virtually the same characteristics, as a symbol of eternal life. New Testament and early Christian writers realized that it could only point to Jesus Christ. The tree of life is significant in the Book of Revelation, and those who overcome the world will be able to eat of it (Rev. 2:7; 22: 2, 14). Other passages refer to the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, for example, when the olive tree becomes Paul’s symbol of eternal life for the Saints, both Jew and Gentile (Rom. 11:16-27; also notice the similarity of his analogy to Jacob’s allegory of the olive tree in the Book of Mormon in Jacob ch. 5).
– Olive oil, a product or fruit of the sacred tree, was used not only used in the Old Testament for the ritual anointing of priests and kings, but also was used in the New Testament for anointing and blessing the sick (See Ex 30:23-33; James 5:14-15). The name Christ (Gr.) and Messiah (Heb.) means “the anointed one” and anointing for divine kingship and for God’s blessing has special significance of Jesus.
– The New Testament also alludes to the cross of Jesus as a tree (Acts 5:30; Gal. 3:13; 1 Pet. 2:24). It has been noticed that the Greek word used for tree in these passages is the same word that is used for the tree of life in the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament), rather than the usual New Testament word for tree. According to a number of sources, early Christians thought of the cross as a tree of life. Here is a translation of an ancient hymn:
“The tree of life is the cross which gives a radiant life to our race. On the top of Golgotha Christ distributed life to men. And henceforth he further promised us the pledge of eternal life. Our Savior typified his body in the tree, the one from which Adam did not taste because he sinned.”
Also from an early Church Father:
“By the tree of death we were born to the life to come;...therefore, pluck believingly the fruits of life.”
Cyril of Jerusalem writes that the cross fulfilled the Old Testament symbol of life coming from the wood in the temple, on the ark [of the covenant], and even the rod carrying the bronze serpent:
“The Tree of Life [meaning the cross] therefore was planted in the earth, that the earth which had been cursed might enjoy the blessing, and that the dead might be released.”
Methodius called Jesus both the first principle and the tree of life. John Chrysostom speaks of life through the cross, and calls the cross the fountain of life.
7) The Book of Mormon
Griggs states that “the Book of Mormon provides an excellent example of how sacred writings preserve and transmit great religious symbols...”
“The tree of life appears in the visions fo both Lehi and Nephi as a symbol of spiritual nourishment and salvation. The symbol contains many critical elements found in Old World cultures: (1) the difficulty of gaining access to it; (2) the various destructive forces around and about it; (3) the spiritual qualities required to make its fruit acceptable and nourishing to its partakers; and (4) the divine nature of the tree and its fruit, which render them unavailable to mortals lost in darkness and laden with sin.”
“The tree of life as found in Nephite culture had other–future–ties as well. John Sorenson, for example, has noted that “Tree of Life symbolism occurred widely in Mexico and Central America in ancient times. Many of the same artistic features occur in scenes there as in Near Eastern art.” M.Wells Jakeman and V. Garth Norman have also documented specific similarities between some of those tree representations and references to the tree of life in the Book of Mormon.
“Among all these representations, however, nowhere is there a better depiction of the tree of life and true meaning than in the Book of Mormon. Lehi and Nephi learned that only by holding fast ot the rod of iron, representing the word of God, could people reach the tree and its fruit... Those who reached the tree but partook of the fruit without forsaking the world and its enticements became ashamed, falling away into forbidden paths.
“The destructive forces about the tree included mockers and a filthy river representing the hell prepared for the wicked. The tree’s white fruit, described similarly in other ancient cultures, was sweet and more desirable to the righteous than anything else. The tree itself represented the love of God, specifically manifested in the ministry and sacrifice of the Savior.
“Alma later used the tree of life motif in his sermons, inviting the people “to be baptized unto repentance, that [they] also may be partakers of the fruit of the tree of life.” Although the story of Adam and Eve and the forbidden tree of life in the Garden of Eden was well-known among the Book of Mormon writers, the New World prophets, like those in the Old World, looked to another tree of life with fruit they could eat.
“These and similar ways in which Book of Mormon writers use the symbolism of the tree of life place the Book of Mormon solidly in antiquity. But the greatest challenge of the vision of the tree of life in the Book of Mormon is not in tracing its history... The greatest challenge is in making the truths it symbolizes an integral part of our lives. Most men continue to eat only the deadening fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life, however, is available to all who do not wish to live forever in their sins, and the Book of Mormon invites all people to approach and partake of the tree’s divine and eternal fruit.”
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