The Fruit of the Righteous: A Word About Biblical Botanology

Now one might be a bit skeptical at the word "botanology," appearing as it must a bit contrived. The word links two basic ideas, the first of which is the obvious, "botany," and then the (Greek) word "logos" used as a suffix for "the study of." In a theological context, the suffix (which would otherwise signify a redundant misuse) means the theological study of trees and plants in the Bible. This is not simply biblical botany, for that would imply something a bit like actual gardening or pruning -- real life interaction with particular flora named in the Word of God.

This is not that. This proper theological terms names the systematic and hermeneutical study of how the Bible uses the ideas associated with trees and plants -- the ones in the Bible -- to show forth the attributes of God in Christ Jesus, who is the goal of all the teachings of the Word of God. Granted, botanology is probably a newer branch of systematic theology, but the Bible says what it says, and it has much to say about all manner of flora. So we might as well say it accurately and systematically, rather than haphazardly and poorly.

First, we must the Bible approaches the topic, affirming the goodness of God shown in all creation, and the vegatative side of creation is no different. In fact, the color most often associated with this greenery is that which encircles the throne of God in the book of Revelation. For it is the color of life, and new creation.

Now the (book of the) Proverbs of Kings confirms this association repeatedly, and Solomon has a great deal to say of our floral friends. When we first encounter the tree of life in the garden of Eden, we find that it is 1. Openly available 2. (very) Good for food 3. Sacramental (set apart by the Word of God as specially beneficial, and which functions as a sign and seal of obedience). This tree is holy. It is not like the other trees. All others but one were available too. But they differed from this one in very important ways. There were common. This one was holy.

Now Solomon says, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he who winneth souls is wise." (Proverbs 11:30).

Now Deuteronomy 20:19 associates trees with the lives of men. This is highly practical, since they were often the most important food source available to those living in a walled city. It reads:

"When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man's life) to employ them in the siege ..."

The lives of humans, because they are made in God's image, remain holy. Even in war time, the Bible places specific parameters around taking life lawfully, versus laying waste to them wantonly. The trees stand for people. Because you may not kill humans wantonly -- even in war time -- one must also treat their food sources in the same way. Incidentally, this teaches a few important principles about war and food -- the point of war is to force the aggressor to surrender, not to kill all the people under his rule.

In other words, God takes prisoners except in very unusual circumstances -- which the Bible names particularly.

Second, trees -- farming in general -- remains the primary source of human life, even after the Fall. Just because we may now eat food sources other than greenery does not make the hamburger the mainstay of civilization. Slaughtering the fattened calf was something done on special occasions. The wise diet is thus one which permits meat sources, but centers on grains, fruits and vegetables for strength and long life. And few people have died from eating fish (though several have been eaten by them).

But what did Solomon have in mind by a "tree of life?" The one in the garden on the east side of Eden was not the only tree of life, as we see from the point made by the deuternomic text above. Much of the middle east consists of desert areas, a region familiar with harsh and even blistering environments, especially for early travelers who needed camels to trek any real distance. Horses and mules were reserved for shorter runs, or else battles.

Frequently, if one spent any time journeying across the desert wilderness of the Middle East, when one looked for a sign of water to sustain his life, and the lives of his caravan members, he looked for water. But to see water from a distance, one looked for date palm trees, or other like tree. This is the palm tree we always see in the movies, in the middle of an oasis in the desert. If you find this, you find water and food nearby. You find life growing in an environment not much different from "Death Valley" in Southern California, where temperatures often soar to near 120 degrees (F) in any given year.

The Date Palm ("Phoenix Dactylifera," they call it in botany world) appears in Exodus 15:27, as a particularly helpful example for what Solomon had in mind. The Hebrew of this text names the Date Palm "Tamar," or in the plural, "Tamarim."

Following the Song of Moses -- commemorating God's great victory over the Pharoah of Egypt (the greatest empire at the time) -- and following the victory dance of Miriam and the women of Israel, and then the reminder of a tree used to make the bitter waters of Marah sweet, the Israelites found an oasis laden with the date palm. There were there 12 springs of water and 70 date palm trees.

The very interesting book, The Healing Plants of the Bible, by Vincenzina Krymow, indicates that "In Near-Eastern mythology it was identified with the Tree of Life ....Paintings of Palm trees are found in Egyptian tombs as early as 1405 B.C. [one generation after the Exodus]...They were a sign of majesty and fruitfulness, growing heavenward to more than 80 feet in height. The Palm received its botanical name [Phoenix Dactylifera] from Phoenicia, which referred to what is now Lebanon and Syria, and was known as the 'Land of the Palms.'"

Interestingly, the Date Palm takes 30 years to reach full maturity, the same as a man who attains to the priesthood in the Bible. The levitical and dominical, minimum age for ministry is thirty.

12 and 70 -- Now what have we here?

71 trees total in the immediate context, one of which was sacramental (miraculous in converting what was bitter into what is sweet), and then 12 springs -- obviously corresponding to the number of tribes in Israel, and 70 palms laden with sweet fruit, a favorite in ancient Israel and in many nations today. The number 70 has it immediate correspondence in the number of judges appointed in Israel to rule with Moses, judging the disputes which arose among the people. Moses, at the advice of his father in law, selected 70 wise men for the task. This made for 71 wise men total.

In the New Testament, we find the Lord Jesus choosing 12 apostles and sending out 70 evangelists to preach the gospel, bidding peace upon any house they entered and every town, doing miracles in the Name of the Lord, to turn the lives of Jews living in hardship to a sweeter flavor. They healed the lame, and cast out demons, etc. -- doing all in the Name of the Lord Jesus who sent them.

Then finally, when once for all the Lord Jesus Himself was crucified upon a tree, a tree of death to Him and life to many, from that tree came (we read in the Book of Acts especially) rivers of living water, which turned the bitter lives of those held in captivity to sin and Satan into sweeter life, by the gospel of life (Paul calls it "the word of life"), by the 12 apostles who proclaim with authority that word of life, doing mighty wonders for forty years (counting the ministry of Christ Himself).

As it is written in the book of Hebrews, "Forty years they saw my works." And these confirmed the gospel preached everywhere by the 12 appointed date palms. And the fruit of the righteous was a tree of life to all who believed and were saved. This continued even after the apostles, with the waves of persecution under various emperors, until Pharaoh was compelled to give way to the gospel. First, Constantine issued the Edict of Toleration, (A.D. 313) rendering Christianity for the first time legal as a publicly accepted religion, and then later Theodosius finally decreed it the only lawful religion for public practice, outlawing all false religion (A.D. 399).


By the year 400 in the year of our Lord, it was once again time for the song of Moses. When the word of life is proclaimed clearly, without mitigation and repeatedly, it carries the full authority of the Almighty God, and resistance is futile. This was the lesson it took Rome 3 centuries to learn after opposing the Gospel of Christ with the blood of many martyrs.

But it all started in a desert in Egypt on the way to Israel, with a band under the command of Moses. It started with a tree which made the bitter sweet for God's people, and with 12 springs of water, and with 70 date palms. This was precisely the number of men of the house of Israel which had entered Egypt together.

Genesis 46:27 indicates that "... the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls: all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten." This means there is a sense in which Israel left the way it came in, under the banner of seventy men, and 12 tribes, representing the whole House of Israel.

In the time of Hezekiah, the good king of Israel, the priestly service was set in order the same way. 2 Chronicles 29:32-35 reads:
And the number of the burnt offerings, which the congregation brought, was threescore and ten [seventy] bulls, an hundred rams, and two hundred lambs: all these were for a burnt offering to the LORD. And the consecrated things were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep. .... for the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests. And also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace offerings, and the drink offerings for every burnt offering. So the service of the house of the LORD was set in order.

True Israel was to be a tree of life to the Gentiles, and a light to the nations. This is consumately the Lord Jesus and his dominical men. Remember that he entered Jerusalem to the waving of Palm branches -- branches of Tamar, the tree of life and the singing of Psalm 114, "Hosanna to the Son of David, Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord." Only a few days later, they hung him from a tree, putting him to open shame, as brutally as Amnon, the son of David (who represents evil Israel to be cut off) had done to his innocent sister. So also the evil 70 -- the council of the Sanhedrin - condemned the Lord to death (though not all consented) -- and in God's providence seventy men (or else, less likely, 72) gave the Jewish nation the Septuagint, the OT translation favored by Christ and the apostles, as the word of God, and tree of life.

But all of the Law and prophets speak of Christ, even the evil done in Israel to the innocent. Nevertheless, their evil in God's providence prophesied beforehand also became a tree of life, the New Israel, and a light to the Gentiles. For the fruit of the Righteous One is a tree of life; and He who wins souls is wise.