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Daniel describes a world tree at the center of the earth whose top reaches the heavens. The Christian theologian Irenaeus echoes this cosmic-tree image when he calls Jacob’s ladder the tree set up from earth to heaven by which believers ascend.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Daniel 4:11
Hebrew Bible
10 Here are the visions of my mind while I was on my bed. “While I was watching, there was a tree in the middle of the land. It was enormously tall. 11 The tree grew large and strong. Its top reached far into the sky; it could be seen from the borders of all the land. 12 Its foliage was attractive and its fruit plentiful; on it there was food enough for all. Under it the wild animals used to seek shade, and in its branches the birds of the sky used to nest. All creatures used to feed themselves from it.
Irenaeus Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 46
Early Christian
45 And Jacob, when he went into Mesopotamia, saw Him in a dream, standing upon the ladder, that is the tree which was set up from earth to heaven; for thereby they that believe on Him go up to the heavens. For His sufferings are our ascension on high. And all such visions point to the Son of God, speaking with men and being in their midst. For it was not the Father of all, who is not seen by the world, the Maker of all who has said: Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me, or what is the place of my rest? And who comprehendeth the earth with his hand, and with his span the heaven—it was not He that came and stood in a very small space and spake with Abraham; but the Word of God, who was ever with mankind, and made known beforehand what should come to pass in the future, and taught men the things of God.
Date: 175-190 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... In the Sumerian epic Lugalbanda and Enmerkar, the ‘eagle-tree’ has a similar role. In Assyrian contexts, the motif of a sacred tree is also well known. Some scholars have called it a tree of life, and some also associate it with the world tree. The tree is often flanked by animals or by human or divine figures. A winged disk is typically located centrally over the top of the tree. The king is presented as the human personification of this tree. The tree is thought by some to represent the divine world order, but discussion of the tree is absent from ancient Near Eastern texts. ...”
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