scholarly journals “All the Precious Trees of the Earth”: Trees in Restoration Scripture

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1035
Author(s):  
David Charles Gore
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Olive Tree ◽  
Tree Of Life ◽  
What Is Said ◽  
Book Of Mormon ◽  
Pine Tree ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Hebrew Scripture ◽  
Standards Of Beauty

In Hebrew scripture and the New Testament, trees play a prominent role, most obviously in the first chapters of Genesis and the last chapter of Revelations. Trees also serve as messianic heralds, as life-giving resources, as aesthetic standards of beauty, as exemplars of strength and fame, and as markers and instruments of salvation. Like the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Mormon and other Latter-day Saint scriptures feature prominent references to forests, trees, branches, roots, and seeds. What is unique about the spiritual and cultural landscape invoked by Latter-day Saint scripture? More specifically, what is said about trees and their accoutrements in restoration scripture? While numerous studies have focused on the major thematic tree scenes in the Book of Mormon, the tree of life in the visions of Lehi and Nephi, Zenos’ allegory of the olive tree, and Alma’s discourse on the seed of faith and the tree of righteousness, this paper aims at a broader look at trees in Latter-day Saint scripture. Taking cues from Robert Pogue Harrison’s Forests: The Shadow of Civilization, this paper takes a wide-ranging look at how trees in restoration scripture can help us rhetorically address the ecological dilemmas of our time. When the Gods built us a home, they did so with trees, and when God called on Their people to build a house, God told them to “bring the box tree, and the fir tree, and the pine tree, together with all the precious trees of the earth” to build it (see Abraham 4:11–12 and D&C 124:26–27). Another revelation declares bluntly: “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees” (D&C 77:9). As eaters of sunshine and exhalers of oxygen, trees have much to teach us about how to live, and trees in restoration scripture specifically contribute to a broader vision of ecological living.

scholarly journals The trees in the middle of Paradise (Gn 2:9) during the Great Lent: Orthodox hymnography as biblical interpretation

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantin H. Oancea
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Tree Of Life ◽  
Direct Connection ◽  
Interesting Aspect ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Selection Of

The article examines the interpretation of the Scripture in Byzantine hymnography during the Great Lent. Some notable recent contributions focus on Andrew of Crete’s and Romanos the Melodist’s compositions, illustrating the hymnographic way of understanding the Scriptures. The author of this study presents a selection of stanzas from hymns of the Triodion that refer to the trees of Paradise. Hymnography perceives the trees in Genesis 2–3 in direct connection with the cross. Only rarely is the tree of life a metaphor for Jesus, as the shadow of the tree of the cross is seldom a metaphor for protection. Another interesting aspect in relation to hymnography is the fact that it represents a type of intertextual exegesis of biblical texts. Hymnographers interpret passages from Genesis by using texts from Psalms, Prophets and especially from the New Testament, combining images and biblical texts in the depiction of liturgical moments.Contribution: Compared with previous research, this article discusses some rare hymnographic interpretations (shadow of the cross; cross in the middle of the earth). The analysis accentuates that the hymnic approach to the Scripture is a form of intertextual exegesis.

Judaism and Christianity in Earth's Insights

1997 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-166
Author(s):  
Rosemary Radford Ruether
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Hebrew Scripture

AbstractIn Earth's Insights, Baird Callicott argues that Hebrew scripture, because of its more communal and this-worldly standpoint, is more amenable to environmental ethics than the New Testament. I enumerate other insights from this tradition, portraying a three-way relation in which nature has its own autonomy, as well as reciprocal interrelation with the human and with God.

Talk

2018 ◽  
pp. 131-154
Author(s):  
Ali Smith
Keyword(s):  
Olive Tree ◽  
Diary Entry ◽  
The Earth ◽  
First Time ◽  
Black Mountain

This transcript of a talk given by Ali Smith at the National Portrait Gallery in London on 23 October 2014 is published here for the first time. A recording of the talk may be heard at https://soundcloud.com/npglondon/getting-virginia-woolfs-goat-a-lecture-by-ali-smith ‘Well it is five minutes to ten: but where am I, writing with pen & ink? Not in my studio.’ No, unusually, in this diary entry from May 1932, Woolf is miles from home and miles from England, a foreigner on holiday in Greece, sitting in a dip of land ‘at Delphi, under an olive tree […] on dry earth covered with white daisies’. Leonard is next to her. His holiday reading is a Greek grammar. She sees a butterfly go past. ‘I think, a swallow tail.’ It’s all part of the desire to catalogue where we are. She describes simply for her diary what’s around her: the bushes and rocks and trees, the ‘huge bald gray & black mountain’, the earth, the flies, the flowers, the sound of goat bells....

An American Book of Chronicles

2019 ◽  
pp. 136-158
Author(s):  
Eran Shalev
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Early American ◽  
Book Of Mormon ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Republic ◽  
American Book

By the time Joseph Smith published The Book of Mormon, Americans had been producing and consuming faux biblical texts for close to a century. Imitating a practice that originated as a satirical literary genre in eighteenth-century Britain, Americans began producing pseudo-biblical texts during the Revolution. This essay demonstrates how the prism of pseudo-biblicism allows us to view The Book of Mormon as emerging from a larger biblico-American world. The genre demonstrates how pervasive the Bible was in the cultural landscape of the Republic and the ease with which Americans lapsed into biblical language. As this essay points out, however, pseudo-biblical discourse also sheds new light on The Book of Mormon. The similarities between The Book of Mormon and other pseudo-biblical texts provide a significant context to understanding the creation and reception of Smith’s text, the culture of biblicism in the nineteenth century, and the intellectual history of the early American Republic.

On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine: Archaeological Paradigms and the Chaco “Tree of Life“

2012 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 478-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. H. Wills
Keyword(s):  
Tree Of Life ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
Prominent Feature ◽  
Contextual Data ◽  
Pine Tree ◽  
Independent Verification ◽  
Archaeological Models

AbstractThe great houses of Chaco Canyon (ca. A.D. 850–1150) are widely assumed to represent cosmological meaning through the orientation of walls and other features to celestial events. Archaeological models of such relationships are considered cosmographic. A prominent feature of these models is a lone pine tree at Pueblo Bonito that has been interpreted as a “tree of life” symbolically connecting the physical and heavenly worlds. This study suggests that this interpretation is inconsistent with contextual data and should be dismissed. Future cosmographic research in Chaco should endeavor to develop methods of independent verification that will strengthen inferences about cosmological symbolism in architecture.

Dating the New Testament

1980 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 487-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Earle Ellis
Keyword(s):  
School Board ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Appalachian Mountains ◽  
Remote Region ◽  
College Graduate ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The New Testament

In a remote region in the Appalachian mountains a young college graduate applied for a teaching job. The school board's first question was, ‘Do you believe the earth is round or flat?’ The applicant knew that in the area opinion was sharply divided, but he was uncertain of the view of the school board. Desperate for a job, he replied, ‘I'll be frank with you, gentlemen, I can teach it either way.’

scholarly journals Peculiarities of Ancient Greek Proverbs with Dendronym Component

2018 ◽  
pp. 152-172
Author(s):  
Lazer-Pan’kiv O. V. Lazer-Pan’kiv O. V.
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Apple Tree ◽  
Olive Tree ◽  
Historical Event ◽  
Greek Language ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Pear Tree ◽  
Pine Tree ◽  
Mulberry Tree

The article represents the results of ancient Greek proverbs’ with dendronym component peculiarities research (with tree species name, name of a part or a fruit of a tree and their derivates). On the basis of their linguocultural and semantic analysis the characteristics of their inner form were described. On this ground an assertion was made that dendronym FIG TREE has the greatest potential for proverb forming in ancient Greek language. The existence of different lexemes in ancient Greek language for certain types and parts of this tree designation attests the wide extent of this tree and its parts usage in everyday life of Hellenes. The proverbs containing dendronym OAK are also quite numerous, while dendronyms APPLE TREE, OLIVE TREE, MYRTLE TREE, LAUREL, MULBERRY TREE, PINE TREE, MASTIK TREE, THORN TREE, POMEGRANATE TREE, CORK TREE and PEAR TREE are used much less often. Such quantitative asymmetry is caused by the peculiarities of their everyday usage by Hellenes. The largest group consists of FU, in which the specific name of the tree (and not part of the tree or fruit) is used. The study of inner form of ancient Greek FU with the dendronym component allowed to determine the cognitive mechanisms of the secondary meaning formation. 62 % FU are formed on the basis of metaphorization (on models “specific → abstract”, “plant → human”, “plant → object”, “object → object”). An equally large group consists of proverbs with a dendronym component, based on metaftonimy, a complex cognitive mechanism of metaphor and metonymy combination (the type “metonymy within metaphor” is much more productive than the type “metaphor within metonymy”). The least numerous are FU formed on the basis of metonymy. The analysis of semantics of ancient Greek FU with the dendronym component made it possible to distinguish the following types of FU motivational basis: the physical characteristics of trees, their parts and fruits, associated with the experience of their practical usage; the practice of using trees, their parts and fruits in various rituals and customs; a historical event in which a certain tree or its part was involved; characteristics of tree parts and fruits concerning their consumption as food; the mention of trees in myths and legends.

scholarly journals Pengaruh Kosmologi Bumi Datar dalam Eskatologi Alkitab

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-101
Author(s):  
Asigor Parongna Sitanggang
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Synoptic Gospels ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Library Research ◽  
Critical Hermeneutic ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
End Times ◽  
The Universe

Understanding the eschatology of each group or ecclesiastical school is quite diverse because this subject is indeed a difficult thing. This paper, Pengaruh Kosmologi Bumi Datar dalam Eskatologi Alkitab (The Influence of Flat Earth Cosmology in Bible Eschatology), aims to re-explore biblical texts relating to eschatology or the end of time. Of all the biblical texts available, it is found that the end times do not talk about the destruction of the earth and/or the universe and replace it with something completely or absolutely new, but only include natural disasters without destroying the absolute earth and/or the universe, so it is the renewal of the earth/universe that exists, now, inhabited by humans. This paper is the result of library research using the historical-critical hermeneutic method of the biblical texts used, including the two-source theory for the synoptic gospels. What is intended in this paper is that many eschatological texts or the texts discuss about the end times in the Bible, both Old Testament as also the New Testament, are strongly influenced by the understanding of flat-earth cosmology, so that reading of these biblical texts should not be carried out using the understanding of modern round-earth cosmology round. AbstrakPemahaman eskatologi masing-masing kelompok atau aliran gerejawi cukup beragam karena memang pokok ini adalah hal yang sulit. Makalah ini, Pengaruh Kosmo-logi Bumi Datar dalam Eskatologi Alkitab, bertujuan untuk menggali ulang teks-teks biblis yang berkaitan dengan eskatologi atau akhir zaman. Dari semua teks biblis yang ada, maka ditemukan bahwa akhir zaman tidak berbicara mengenai penghancuran bumi dan/atau alam semesta dan menggantikannya dengan sesuatu yang sepenuhnya atau mutlak baru, melainkan hanya menyertakan bencana-bencana alam tanpa menghancur-kan mutlak bumi dan/atau alam semesta, sehingga itu merupakan pembaruan bu-mi/alam semesta yang ada, yang sekarang, yang didiami manusia. Makalah ini merupa-kan hasil penelitian kepustakaan dengan menggunakan metode hermeneutik historis-kritis atas teks-teks biblis yang digunakan, termasuk teori dua sumber bagi Injil-injil sinoptik. Yang hendak dibuktikan dalam makalah ini adalah terdapat banyak teks eskato-logis atau tentang akhir zaman dalam Alkitab baik Perjanjian Lama maupun Perjanjian Baru yang sangat dipengaruhi oleh pemahaman kosmologi bumi datar (flat-earth cosmology), sehingga pembacaan teks-teks biblis tersebut tidak boleh dilakukan dengan menggunakan pemahaman kosmologi bumi bulat (round-earth cosmology).

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