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Echoes of Revelation
Revelation never quotes the Old Testament outright, yet no New Testament book refers to it more. See both texts side by side, why they don’t match, and what John does with them.
Revelation 2:7, the tree of life in the paradise of God
The reward for the one who conquers is the tree of life from Genesis 2 and 3, now open again, set in Ezekiel's paradise of God.
Revelation 2:7, in every translation this tool compares.
A family that wins back the old farm can sit under the tree their great-grandparents planted. In Genesis God sets the tree of life in the garden, then bars the way to it after Adam and Eve sin. Jesus promises the one who conquers a right to eat from it. John places the tree in the paradise of God, a phrase from Ezekiel. Eden is open again.
The tree of life (to xylon tes zoes), in the same Greek words as Genesis 2:9 and 3:22. Paradise (paradeisos), the Greek translation's word for the garden. Ezekiel 31:8 in Greek has the very phrase in the paradise of God.
Genesis speaks of the garden in Eden, not the paradise of God; John takes that phrase from Ezekiel 28:13 and 31:8. In Genesis 3 the tree is guarded so that no one may eat. John reverses the ban: now the winner is invited to eat. Genesis has no condition of conquering; John adds it.
The tree stands for God's life-giving presence, Beale says, lost when Adam and Eve were sent out. Christ promises it back. The same tree returns in 22:2 by the river of the new Jerusalem. Wright and the ESV Study Bible add a local edge: a sacred tree stood in the precinct of Artemis at Ephesus.
Not a picture of the cross as the tree. Beale reads the tree as the effect of the cross, the restored presence of God, not the cross itself.
In the vault's Septuagint, Genesis 2:9 has to xylon tes zoes en meso tou paradeisou and 3:22 warns lest he take from the tree of life and eat. Ezekiel 28:13 reads en te tryphe tou paradeisou tou theou, and Ezekiel 31:8 twice has en to paradeiso tou theou. John's phrase en to paradeiso tou theou is Ezekiel's word for word, joined to Genesis' tree. Beale lists early Jewish texts with the same hope: Testament of Levi 18:10-11, Psalms of Solomon 14:2-3 and 4 Ezra 8:52. He notes that the tabernacle lampstand was shaped like a tree, which ties the lampstand of 2:5 to the tree of 2:7. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible notes that many Jewish sources made Eden the destiny of the righteous. The grade is drawn here: the wording is the same and the scene is Eden's.
Heiser calls the Old Testament roots of this verse very transparent. The believer's future on the new earth is modeled on Eden before the fall. He ties it to the mission: the gospel goes to the nations, the Lord returns, the nations are healed and Eden is renewed. A church that drops its witness delays that future.
The sources agree on Genesis. They differ on the local color. Beale suggests a tree linked with Artemis or with Ephesus. Wright describes a tree in the Artemis precinct used for asylum. The ESV Study Bible names the date palm on the city's coins. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible mentions tree shrines in the temple estates.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 2:7
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 2:7
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 2:7
- ESV Study Bible, notes on Revelation 2:1-7 and 2:7
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 2:7
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 2:7
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 2:1-7
- Septuagint, Genesis 2:9, 3:22-24, Ezekiel 28:13 and 31:8, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 2:7
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 2: Letters to the Churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, and Thyatira, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
