The study of trees in the Bible will take you to the root of the most profound Biblical meanings.
Since the Garden of Eden, God has surrounded His dwelling places with trees. The Garden had the most important trees in the Bible; Noah made his ark of trees, the patriarchs planted trees and lodged around them, Moses used trees to build the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle, as did Solomon with his Temple.
The Bible talks about the Messiah as the woman’s seed, the seed of David, the Root of Jesse, and Israel as a noble vine, an olive tree, and a fig tree.
Believers are trees planted by the streams of water and branched to the true tree, Jesus Christ. God is their gardener, pruning them to yield ever more good fruits.
Jesus compares God’s kingdom to a mustard seed that becomes a tree so big that the birds can come and make nests on its branches.
The Tree of Life that goes out of the reach of people in Genesis 3 returns to flourish in the City of God at the end of Revelation, giving us clues as to what the Bible is about.
That’s how significant trees are in the Bible. And we haven’t even mentioned the wooden cross on which our Lord Jesus was crucified.
Let’s first look at how the Bible presents trees and then unpack all the theory by connecting it to the symbolism of trees in the Bible.
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Trees highlighted in different Biblical periods
Trees are tightly woven into the Biblical narrative. Many of the most important events occur around trees or wooden structures, bringing up various trees from different Biblical periods.
The tree imagery is nothing new to Christians. Everybody knows about the trees of Paradise, especially the one with the forbidden fruit. Many know Noah’s wooden ark and Jesus’ parable, which compares the Kingdom of God to a mustard tree. In this article, we want to show that these are not just one-off events; the tree imagery follows through the Bible narrative from the beginning to the end.
The Bible leaves out so many things from its stories that the things it mentions have to be of utmost importance. Not one jot or tittle is misplaced or mentioned “for fun.” Therefore, if the Bible mentions that
- Abraham encountered God by the Oaks of Mamre (Gen 18)
- Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called God the Everlasting God (Gen 21)
- the judges of Israel gave instructions under palm trees (Judges 4)
- the Tabernacle and the Temple were made of wood overlaid with gold (Ex 26, 1 Kings 6)
- and so on
we need to pay attention. The Bible is telling us something about God’s Word and the world.
The table below shows the trees that the Bible highlights in different periods. The table is not exhaustive since the Bible mentions other trees during the periods. The trees mentioned are the ones highlighted in essential passages.
| Period | Tree |
| Eden | Tree of Life, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, Fig |
| Noah | “Gopher” wood for the ark |
| Abraham | Oak, tamarisk |
| Wilderness | Acacia for the Tabernacle |
| Period of Judges | Palm trees |
| David | Cedar |
| Temple | Olive, Cedar, Cypress |
| Kingdom | Fig |
| Restoration | Myrtle |
| New Covenant | Mustard, Olive |
God is depicted as a tree in the Bible
In the Old Testament, the Bible refers to God as an evergreen cypress tree. In the New Covenant, God branches believing Christians into Christ Jesus, the true vine.
Hosea 14:8
Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols?
I answer, and will take care of him.
I am like a green cypress tree;
from me your fruit is found.”
John 15:1-2
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer. Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
Jesus is a gardener and carpenter
God put Adam in the Garden to tend it, Noah was a farmer and planted a vineyard, and Abraham planted trees. They all followed their Father in Heaven, a farmer who plants and prunes His trees (John 15:1, Numbers 24:6).
Jesus also follows in the footsteps of His Father, being the Divine Gardener (John 20:15) and molding trees for better use as a carpenter (Mark 6:3).
Mark 6:3
Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judah, and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?”
Jesus is the Tree of Life
Jesus is the fulfillment and restoration of what was lost in the Garden of Eden. He is the source of eternal life.
Jesus proclaimed, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). He offers eternal life to those who believe in Him. Just as the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden symbolizes immortality, Jesus provides life transcending physical death. Therefore, we see the Tree of Life again amongst the people at the end of the Book of Revelation.
Genesis 3:22
Yahweh God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever—”
Revelation 22:1-2
He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Humans, especially believers, as trees in the Bible
Believers are trees renewed from the waters above or the sanctuary and bear good fruit to everyone around them. This is why Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob dug wells and planted trees in the land of Canaan. Their lodging places were the spiritual and actual garden oases in the middle of a desert land.
The imagery of the oasis comes from the very first chapters of Genesis, from the Garden of Eden. However, the connection between people and trees comes even earlier than any mention of the Garden in Genesis.
Let’s look at Creation Week. We can divide it into two sections: days 1-3 and days 4-6. We see that the days form pairs with each other.
On day 4, God created lights in the sky as He lit up the world with His light on day 1. On day 5, God fills in what He created on day 2, and on day 6, He fills in what he created on day 3.
- Day 1: Light
- Day 2: Separation of waters by the creation of firmament called “heaven”
- Day 3: Separation of land and sea, vegetation and trees
- Day 4: Lesser lights
- Day 5: Fish and birds
- Day 6: Land animals and man
- Day 7: Sabbath rest
Man’s creation corresponds with revealing the land because God created man out of the land. However, Genesis 1:11 show us another connection as God creates “fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with their seeds in it.” This language of seeds and bearing fruit is the same as that used about humans later in the Bible.
We see the connection in Genesis 3:15 when God promises that there will be a seed of a woman who will crush the Serpent’s head. The seed here refers to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, which the Bible later describes as the seed of David (2 Timothy 2:8) and the root of Jesse (Isa 11:10).
We encounter many more references to humans as trees in the Bible.
- The Bible describes younger generations of humans as seeds numerous times.
- God-fearing people are like firmly planted trees that bear fruit in their season. (Psalm 1:3)
- If the people don’t fear God, they will be rooted out of the land. (Psalm 52:5, Proverbs 2:22)
- When Jesus heals a blind man, he sees men as trees at first. (Mark 8:24)
- Romans 11:16-24 depicts Israel as a natural olive tree into which the Gentiles, wild olive trees, are grafted.
- The Bible speaks about saints as pillars in the Lord’s Temple (Gal 2:9, Rev 3:12). The pillars of the Tabernacle (Ex 26:32) and Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings 6:33) were made of wood with overlaid gold.
- No stones were visible in Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings 6:18). All the stone, even in the Holy of Holies, was covered with wood, which was overlaid with gold. Wood covered with gold represents glorified believers. The image becomes eschatological, where the glorified saints surround God.
Israel compared to trees in the Bible
The Bible depicts Israel as a tree that God planted in the Promised Land in the finest gardens, expecting it to yield good fruit.
Israel is
- a fig tree (Luke 13:6-9)
- an olive tree (Hosea 14:6, Jeremiah 11:16, Romans 11:17)
- a vine (Psalm 80:14-15, Jeremiah 2:21)
If Israel doesn’t walk in the Lord’s ways, or to put in the tree terms, bear good fruit, God will uproot it from the Land, burn it, or cut it down. We see John the Baptist saying that an ax is waiting at the tree’s root (Matt 3) and Jesus commanding to cut the tree down. (Luke 3)
The trees of the Paradise
Trees are among the fundamental elements that we encounter in Paradise.
God created many trees, three of which are mentioned by their names, during Creation Week. After the Fall, a new type of tree with thorns and thistles was added.
The first three chapters of the Bible depict the events of Creation Week, the Fall, and Adam’s and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden. Trees play a significant role in the events, so it is worth reviewing the types of trees mentioned.
God created fruit-bearing trees on the third day, saw that it was good (Gen 1:11), and gave all of them to humans for food (Gen 1:29). The trees that God created included the Tree of Life, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the fig tree.
So, all the fruit-bearing trees were good and suitable for food, including the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. However, God temporarily banned eating that tree’s fruit until people were mature enough to have the fruit. We can infer the temporary ban from the facts that all fruit-bearing trees were good in God’s eyes and suitable for food, and eating the fruit would make Adam and Eve more like God, which is God’s plan for humanity.
Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s commandment not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The fruit opened their eyes, and they realized that they were naked.
A study of the terms of opening one’s eyes, seeing, and discernment of good and evil shows that the terms are related to judgment and government; “God saw, and it was good,” Solomon asked, “an understanding to discern between good and evil to govern Israel (1 Kings 3:9).”
After eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam and Eve knew they had sinned and covered themselves with leaves from a fig tree. When God searched for them, they hid themselves among the trees of the Garden.
God cursed the ground because of Adam’s sin so that humans would labor tediously to get a harvest from the land. Ground would now also yield thorns and thistles to make living in and laboring the land even harder.
To prevent humans from eating the fruit of the Tree of Life and living eternally in the state where they were capable of sinning, God threw them out of Paradise.
Spiritual meaning and symbolism of trees in the Bible
Trees have several symbolic and spiritual meanings in the Bible.
The straight tree trunk represents themes like God’s power, truth, order, oneness, unity, and true knowledge. A vertical wooden rod is often used for this kind of imagery. Contrast this to a snake that coils from side to side on the ground horizontally, and you can understand how the two images become opposites in Biblical symbolism. When you follow God, you walk uprightly, vertically straight like a tree trunk. If you have corrupted your ways, your paths (horizontal) are crooked. (Proverbs 9, 10, 28)
Deuteronomy 32:5
They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.
When a tree grows, it has a fractal nature to produce branches that look like mini-trees. The trunk gives unity and oneness that the branches then replicate. Christians are branched into the true vine, Jesus Christ, and replicate His will in the world by the indwelling Holy Spirit.
The lifecycle of a tree reminds us of Jesus’ life and gives us a pattern to follow as Christians. A tree’s seed must first die and be buried below the ground. From death to life, it sprouts above the ground and becomes a tree again, yielding good fruit in its due season. Jesus refers to this when talking about His death and resurrection in John 12:24-26. Christians partake in Christ’s death and resurrection when they are born again and baptized.
A tree, just like mountains in the Bible, represents a ladder to Heaven as it grows upward, pushing its canopy from Earth ever closer to Heaven.
Trees are beautiful to look at and give cover. Their fruits are used for food, and leaves for medicine. As such, they represent God’s provision for the living creatures in the world.
On the cross, Jesus is lifted from the ground and fixated, nailed, on a wooden cross with vertical and horizontal axes. He is, as divine and in the likeness of sinful flesh, reaching up to Heaven, reconciling us with God, and reaching horizontally, healing our relationship with the Creation. He takes the consequences of sin from Paradise upon Himself, wearing them as the crown that makes Him the King of Kings.
Jesus becomes Moses’ wooden rod and the mountain that gives the water in the wilderness. He becomes the tree that turns bitter water into fresh water at Marah. He drinks the bitter vinegar water on the cross and turns it into life-giving blood and water that comes out from His body when He is pierced.
Jesus is resurrected and enthroned as the Lord over all Creation by doing the Father’s will perfectly, becoming the link that reconciles humanity with God the Father. He is the truth, the way, and the life of those who trust Him in faith. They will reach out, eat the fruit of the Tree of Life, and live forever.
Summary of what trees represent in the Bible
The significance of trees in the Bible is profound and multifaceted, spanning from the Garden of Eden to the Book of Revelation. Trees feature prominently in Biblical narratives, symbolizing various aspects of God’s relationship with humanity and the spiritual journey of believers.
From the Garden of Eden’s Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil to wooden structures like Noah’s Ark, the Tabernacle, and Solomon’s Temple, trees symbolize human connection to God.
Throughout biblical periods, trees are highlighted. Believers are likened to trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit through God’s nurturing and pruning.
The spiritual symbolism of trees represents the path of righteousness, with straight trunks symbolizing God’s truth and order, while branches mirror believers’ connection to Jesus Christ.
Ultimately, Jesus Christ is depicted as the ultimate fulfillment of the Tree of Life, offering eternal life to believers.