A different look at the association between trees and man in the Bible

The Tree and Man

Throughout the Old Testament, the word for “Tree” or “wood” or “stick” is "Etz", but it is also dialectically pronounced by some Jews as “ēs(h)” [even though it is spelled Ayin-Tzaddai]. Upon discovering this, I was at once fascinated at the ramifications and wondered if it was some kind of a Bedouin adoption, becuase it was taught by someone who spoke fluent Hebrew and fluent Arabic. It apparently wasn't.

It seems that, in this enunciation may well predate the Massoretes as one of the Hebrew dialects also likely prevalent in Israel in the First Centuries B.C and A.D. This is Ayin-Tzaddai as "esh" would then likely be the same as if an allegorical the description of Adam in the Garden of Eden, who is also called “ēsh” [Alef-Yod-Shin].

Strangely enough, the feminine noun for “tree” or “wood” in the Hebrew (Jeremiah 6:6) is the word “ēsha” [Ayin-Tzaddai-He], though most usually pronounce as “aetza” and miss the dialectic insight. This is the same pronunciation as “ēsha”, or “woman”, as found in the Garden of Eden, and spelled there as [Alef-Shin-He]. Therefore, this feminine collective noun [Alef-Tzaddai-He] although found only once in the Bible, -- in Jeremiah 6:6 -- takes on the connotation of being “the forest of all humanity”: and thus, the application of motherhood.

The allusion of esha is even better illustrated, when it is applied as though being a forest of “all nations and peoples that come up against Jerusalem” in the end of days (Zechariah 12:2,9; 14:2). According to one perspective of the Bible, Adam and Eve’s children are seen, as though they were trees of a vast forest covering the face of the earth. The habitation of GOD is, after a fashion then, “among the fields of the wood” (Psalm 132:6).

Notice that in the Psalms, the children of Israel, as children, are to grow up as Olive Trees (Psalm 128:3), but take the likeness of mighty cedars of Lebanon as adults, healthy and full of sap (Psalm 104:16). These are illustrations and characterizations of strength, health, endurance, and vitality.

This being the case: the trees of the Garden of Eden, which were lawful for the First man and the First woman to eat of, appear to be representative of man’s position and association with the Heavenly Hosts. Adam and Eve were originally designed to share a platonic communion as “brother” and “fellow heir” to the heavenly beings that would come down and visit within their midst. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil then represents a platonic and brief, but innocent association, with the fallen Cherub, Satan. However, it appears that through Adam’s apathy, and Eve’s curiosity, that casual greeting and introduction -- though quite innocent on Adam and Eve’s part -- proved deadly. It is though the ēsh [Ayin-Tzaddai] (“the tree”/ the apathy of “the man” being ēsh [Ayin-Yod-Shin])1 that man made his idols, through wooden stocks, and overlaid them with gold or silver.

The overlaying of these stocks of wood with precious metals is tied to the first man-made kingdom in the Bible, the “Mamlakutu” of Babel in Genesis 10:10.2

“Mamlakutu” is closely identified and associated with “Melek” (“king”), after the form of a religious identity: a king who is both king and pontifex maximus (“high priest”). The deification lies not upon the stock of wood, its shape, or upon the precious metal with which it is covered; inasmuch the emphasis that is placed upon the imaginative “value” of the gold, or silver, that covers the image. The greater the value placed onto the metal, the greater the trust in the “riches or wealth” of the kingdom based on wealth: the “Mamlakutu” [Mem-Mem-Lamed-Kaf-Tav-Vav].

“Mamlakutu” [Mem-Mem-Lamed-Kaf-Tav-Vav]: the two mems ממ, as according to the Hebraic art of Gematriac analysis, represent the “peoples pressing together” to enter this kingdom being established by Babel. It is as the masses of the humanity fill the “broad way”, the “euruchoros” of which Christ alludes (Matthew 7:13), in which a wide open countryside, as vast as far as the eye can see. The broad way is where every one is free to travel, to sit, to move, or to pursue which ever way is right in their own eyes. These are they, the multitudes, who ignore GOD’s call for travel on the pressing and narrow path, prefer the wide path or broad way to attain their own salvation. They despise GOD’s Voice, and curse and gnash their teeth. The Lamed ל tells us that they are learning that this way of life is both to be desired and acceptable.

It is not a natural instinct that is inherited in their genes; they must learn the error of the religion of Mamon. The Kaf כ tells us what they are learning: of how to oppress and suppress one another with the palm, and of violence. The Tav ת informs us that this kingdom is believed into as if it were an everlasting institution. The Vav ו informs us that the desires of this kingdom hold a hook into those believing into it. They are like fish whose mouth is caught with a hook and line, or are limited to swim within the confines of a net by the sin nature: they are become as slaves and as captives to it.

We are called, then, by the very nature and institution of "religion", not to place our value in a stock of wood -- but upon what is on that stock of wood.

In Christianity, we look upon the Cross --or rather, upon Christ who was nailed into the “tree” or “wood”-- and we place our most esteemed value upon Christ, who is our life, our most-extreme end, and our justification for living. We trust not in the fabric of metals that rust and fade away, but in the Living GOD, who for our sins, died in our place and rose again from the dead. As Adam and Eve fell away unto the allurement of death, so are we called and lifted up and away unto the allurement of eternal life. This is the message of the Cross: that you might have eternal life in the true reality and sense of it, and to have it, starting even now, more abundantly (John 10:10).


Jewishness” in the Cross
In contrast to the Christian perspective: Judaism views the 5 books of Moses, or the Torah, as the “power of GOD”, and “the tree of Life.” Until the coming of Messiah and His work leading up to and following the Cross, this view had merit. But the legalists went much further, and began to dictate that the Oral Torah, the doctrines and commandments of men, were an extension of GOD’s power and the tree of life to humankind. In fact, the utterances of men began to replace the utterances of GOD, as if they were gods on earth in His stead -- like 70 Roman Catholic Popes ruling a Jewish Sanhedrin, as it were. In Judaism, the word "Torah" is translated into English as either "the Law" or “the Instruction". In the first centuries of the Church, the traditions, histories, and Scriptures were often passed from generation to generation by repetitive chanting. Often, societies that were dependent upon oral traditions were filled with those who had phonographic memories: just one hearing and they could cite over a dozen paragraphs of a speech, almost without missing a word.

To the earliest Churches of Christianity, if the Cross was not glorified or edified as the primary focus within the long-winded rabbinical speeches upon the Faith of Judaism, then it was “traif” to Hebraic Christianity: that is, it was “not kosher”. In John 7:19, Christ Himself, expounded on the necessity of Grace, that concept of mercy, which is kept beyond the doctrine of Law: by pointing out that the very members of the Sanhedrin, themselves were unable (or unwilling) to keep the Law of Moses.

In ca. 107 A.D., the Christian bishop Ignatius of Antioch, Syria, a disciple of those who had heard Christ firsthand, puts forth the perspective that anti-Christian Judaizers were as vines of death. To eat of the fruit of their doctrines of Law -- in place of the liberty in Christ -- is fatal. Only in and through “the Passion” of Messiah, does the Church find itself as being living members (Ignatius, Letter to the Trallians, .11).

The true fruit-bearing offshoot of Judaism is Christianity, and this life-giving fruit is borne aloft to the nations through the Cross. That is the focus of the Early Church: the Cross, and what GOD in Christ Jesus did for us there. We have the assurance of Eternal Life through His Resurrection, but the Resurrection is as if a crown to Christ’s perfect work upon the Cross, where Christ wore a crown of thorns. Thorns represent “the cares of this world; and the deceitfulness of riches” (Matthew 13:22). This tells us, that because of these two offenses, Jesus Crucified by the world: both the Sanhedrin mafia of 23 (led by the high priest himself); and Pilate, being pillagers of the Temple Treasuries. Jesus cared for those living in this world, but cared not for its system of how men dealt with one another in greed and violence. That system being in place, which we call “economics and politics” are what the Bible calls: “thorns”, “the cares of this world.” Thorns thrive on the curse, or the sin nature. Jesus was perfect, without sin and born of a virgin, a healer of tens of thousands, YHVeH in flesh among men. So, upon this point, let us be clear.

The Bible identifies the cares of this world as being like the taste of vinegar and gall, which is a direct reference to “Sodom”.3 “The deceitfulness of riches” is a direct reference to “Egypt”.4 We are also informed by a joining look of Revelation 11:8 with Matthew 13:22, that in regards to Jerusalem rejecting His Son, -- because the Great Sanhedrin of Israel desired “the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches” -- the Father ensured Jesus was crowned with thorns.5 In the mind of the Father, the first priests of 30 A.D. were again guilty of building and sacrificing to the “golden calf” Aaron had formed for their rebellious ancestors, who threw sexual orgies while naming their new money deity as “Baal”.6 They rejected His Son for an insane delusion!

Furthermore, this small group of men, ruling Jerusalem and all Israel as its “first priests”, starved their own nation from the food of their own Scriptures. Paul himself, as Saul, was of this number, reared in Jerusalem from a young boy (Acts 26:4-5) at Gamiliel’s feet (Acts 22:3), and personally known to the upper echelon of Temple Officers and priests, who utilized his zealous services (Acts 22:5). As Saul, Paul was an extended part of this Jewish religious version of a mafia as a lawyer, lost in his zeal. Based on his own words, we cannot say that Paul never “saw” Christ as Saul in the physical sense. If he had, he did not recognize the physical Christ with the Spiritual senses, and after the fulfillment of the prophets. This leads me to believe, that although Paul may have gazed on the physical Christ as Saul, he either never talked to Messiah, or purposely chose to quietly ignore Him. The Bible says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of thy GOD, I will also forget thy children” (Hosea 4:6).

When YHVeH Messiah came, He did not place blame upon the millions of Israel, because He knew they were starved for knowledge because of the “first priests” of Jerusalem (cf. Matthew 9:35-36; Mark 6:34). Saul, too, was one of those being starved -- even though a lap dog of the elite -- by his looking to the High Priest as his sole mediator. Therefore, having compassion, Messiah fed the common people with the words of GOD; and they ate, and listened, and absorbed -- each one to his or her capacity.

Again, Matthew 13:22 / Revelation 11:8 reveals the true reason why the Great Sanhedrin deceived their own nation, misled the people, and rejected their own YHVeH Messiah: because of “the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches”. These two offenses are the primary cause as to why most of humanity will reject Christ, and choose damnation instead. The Cross is thus viewed in much the same way by the world today: as if it was a grave marker of poverty upon one’s life. And grave markers mean “death” (cf. 2 Corinthians 2:15-16).



Three Examples of the Cross in the Torah

The Old Testament, in every book and work, in some way or type, looks ahead to the Cross. When the Rebbe Paul explains in Galatians 4:16 that “man is not justified by the works of the Torah, but by the faith of Jesus Christ”, we are to ask: “Are there examples of why this would be so, and be obvious, from within the Torah itself?” In the Torah, the five books where “works through the Law” is justified as being from, we find how that Rebbe Paul’s reasoning could be seen in even just three examples used by the Church Father, Tertullian.7

1) In Jacob crossing his arms while blessing the sons of Joseph, he symbolizes the Cross (Genesis 48:8-19). For he said, “The Messenger who redeemed me, bless the lads…” (v.16), signifying the identification of Him whom Jacob struggled with (Genesis 32:24 ff.), and called GOD (Genesis 32:30), having seen Him face to face.
In Jacob/Israel and his descendants, a perpetual offense will disjoint their hip, and shrivel the thigh. This prophesies of Israel’s walk with GOD, and tells us that because of their refusal to let go of an insatiable desire for wealth and power, their potential as a mighty nation will be maimed the worship of mammon. They will cease to eat the thigh of animals (Genesis 32:32), as a sign of their coming offense in Jesus, their true wealth. For upon His thigh, He is made known as their YHVeH Messiah, the “King of Kings, and LORD of Lords” (cf. Revelation 19:11-16). The actual injury to the nation of Israel, in these latter days, will be the constant presence of the sons of Esau: the modern Arab “Palestinians” (Obadiah 8-14).

2) Moses standing on a hill, giving victory as the military looked on him for encouragement -- arms outstretched as being the Cross; Aaron and Hur being on either side of him, like Christ and the two thieves at Calvary (Exodus17:10-12; Luke 23:32-33). The warriors look up Moses, and only as long he represents the Cross, keeping his arms outstretched, do they have victory.

3) The Fiery Seraph (or “Serpent”) placed in a crucified form upon a pole for the people to be healed from venomous snakes (Numbers 21:8-9). They must look upon this crucifix, and believe into it. The curse being removed from Adam, into the Earth, and from thence to a Tree. The curse is placed in the tree, which dies, and becomes the beams of the Cross. All sin and curse is atoned for in the Cross. Even the sins of the Seraph, finds the Heavenly taking on Earthly form, to put a cease to the falling away of the heavenly. The Cross is given as a gift to man, to atone for all his sins in the spiritual realm, as well as in the carnal (cf. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.24.3).

Therefore, even in the Torah, three times by symbolism and type, we are being informed that all our works in the flesh (the works of the Law, and the accruing of vast material wealth) avail us nothing -- if those works are outside the confines of GOD’s Grace. GOD’s Grace is defined in the very activity of the Cross. All the work of Salvation has been done for us, except for this:
“And this in the work of GOD [which you must do],
that you believe on Him [Christ] whom He [the Father] has sent.”
(John 6:29)


Thank GOD for every good moment in life, such as now, to see the goodness of His Plan revealed to us...and for all the good moments yet to come in our lives...we who believe and are saved through Christ Jesus the LORD. Amen.
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1 [In the acceptance, that Tsaddai (Ts, Tz) can sometimes be indistinguishable from (S, Sh), which is easily provable, but a separate debate among linguists who specialize in dialects of the Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews….] In order for the Hebrew of Esh as “man” to be transformed into the Esh of “the tree”, two events have to happen. First, is the removal of the soul of GOD in “man”, the second letter, the yod -- which is the abbreviative form of YHVeH. This is representative of the removal of the soul of man, made in the image of YHVeH the Redeemer - GOD the Son, who placed a sliver of His spirit in man at the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:7). Hence, “man” [Alef-Yod-Shin] becomes “fire” [Alef-Shin] (cf. Blech, Benjamin; “the Secrets of Hebrew Words”, Northvale,N.J: Aronson, © 1991, p. 153).
We then see the removal of GOD in his totality, as found in the Alef א, which is abbreviative for the name “Elohim”. This letter is the trinity of GOD, comprised of a slanted vav ו, supported-and-crowned by one yod י each (cf., ibid, p.23). We then see the removal of the supporting yod י from the Alef א, which is the foundation of the Spirit, who is the caretaker of the GOD-head. So now, Alef א takes on the appearance of a backward Ayin ע. This is the First letter transformation and association.
Secondly, we see that the end result of the Shin ש, the letter for piety in the Hebrew, actually becomes an end that does not ascend, as does the third prong on the far left of the letter, but descends. Therefore, what is an obvious self-awareness and enlightenment in Shin ש, now must be “sought out and hunted for” in Tsaddai ץ. Tsaddai is the letter for “righteousness”, but without GOD to light the way either from within or by support without, man must now take an initiative and desire to ask, to seek, and to knock, that he might find (Matthew 7:7-8, I John 5:11-12).

2 The Hebrew word Mamon is directly affiliated with this first Kingdom after the Flood, which was started and established by Nimrod at Babel. Assignment and portions of land were given out, and value was given to land, products, and services. A tower was built as a form of building a stairway to Heaven, into the low clouds that always covered the Earth at that time. After the dispersing of the people, the religion established in Babel was kept, the value systems of Mamlakutu were passed on, and even the history of Noah and the ark was spread through every corner of the earth by way of oral transmission of custom, from being told father to son, mother to daughter, and so on. Although the sophistication of the worship of money and wealth has varied, we are no different from those dispersed at Babel by GOD. We are still a confused and babbling lot, lost in the darkness of unenlightened minds who are exalted as “saviors”, but soon fall in succeeding generations, like blind guides off a cliff.

3 Deuteronomy 32:32 describes the by-product of Sodom, that is - “the cares of this world”, as being like the gall and vinegar that was given to Christ by a Roman guard in Luke 23:36, Matthew 27:48, Mark 15:36, John 19:29-30.


4 Exodus 12:35-36; 20:22-23; 32:1-6.

5 The crown of thorns is indicative of this: that Christ took upon Himself the mind of us, as one “being pierced through with many sorrows” because of Mamon and the kingdom of this world (1 Timothy 6:10), yet did not sin. These desire of money and its variant on kingdom ownership, as seen from Matthew 13:22, are the agitators of the sorrows, the darts that strike and wound, as though they were thorns upon the mind.

6 To the ancient Israelite, Baal was “ba” and “el”, freely translated as “the Path to God”. Its primary opiate was “Power through money.” You can have all the sex you want, with whomever, as long as you pay a price. You can kill, as long as you pay a price. Therefore, money was seen as a means of absolution, and therefore a sign of holiness. The more money you have, the more holy you become, and the more closer to Heaven by the ladder of your wealth. (Cf. Blech, Benjamin “The Secrets of Hebrew Words”, Northvale: Aronson, © 1991, “Mamon”, pp. 116-117.)
After the Hebrew, the indigenous peoples to North Africa and Arabia (but not Israel) are called "arab" or "robbers" in the Hebrew. First, it was El renamed as Ba'El (the way of El), who became a deity or way to mammon (the possession of wealth). Later, some 500 years after Christ, after Mohammed suffered a heat stroke and listened to an unbalanced woman, and wrote a work that not even the Muslims themselves totally believe. A simple quotation of how Israel belongs exclusively to the Jews is repetitively uttered in the Koran, in its very first book. So how can they say that now it is theirs? The post-Koran revelation is that if a Muslim possesses anything once, it is theirs forever, and “just ignore what Mohammed wrote that Allah said”. Islam, therefore, becomes a religion of convenience and greed wherever and whenever possible. The Muslim faith was born out of worship to an old world deity, and the revival of a blood cult linked to snake worship in caves after the name of Mithras.
Allah Akbar also translates in Hebrew, but to the effect of “The Ascending one who nibbles away like a mouse”. So to hear someone shout this before commiting suicide as a Muslim, is as if hearing a backward child living and perceiving life as if in a cartoon fantasy world. In the same way women learned to scream because it was by mice, that the bubonic came and devastated Europe’s population; so too, ought people to remove the infestation of Islam from the midst of all humanity. Islam is a religious and demonic infestation, not just only a mental-disease: Islam brings only oppression, starvation, and death upon the masses - which are to be placed under the thumbs of tyrants and their extended families.

7 Tertullian, an Answer to the Jews, .10; and Tertullian, against Marcion, 3.18 Roberts, The Ante Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, pp.164-166, 336-337.