The Five Trees in
Paradise
In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...
is an esoteric or allegorical image from the
Coptic Gospel of Thomas
The Gospel of Thomas (also known as the Coptic Gospel of Thomas) is a non-canonical Logia, sayings gospel. It was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945 among a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library. Scholars speculate the works ...
, a collection of ''
logia
The term ''logia'' (), plural of ''logion'' (), is used variously in ancient writings and modern scholarship in reference to communications of divine origin. In pagan contexts, the principal meaning was "oracles", while Jewish and Christian writi ...
'' (sayings) of
Jesus
Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
.
"Blessed is he who was before he came into being" is similar to other enigmatic statements commonly found in
mysticism
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute (philosophy), Absolute, but may refer to any kind of Religious ecstasy, ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or Spirituality, spiritual meani ...
, and may refer to the benefits of
self-awareness
In philosophy of self, philosophy, self-awareness is the awareness and reflection of one's own personality or individuality, including traits, feelings, and behaviors. It is not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia. While ...
(knowledge of one's true nature) before
developing one's ego-identity. "If you
isten these stones will minister to you," may refer to "listening" to the true self within – accurately tracing the internal by observing the external – or it may mean that only through self-awareness are we able to understand Jesus' symbolic language and master external reality.
In the
Acts of Thomas
''Acts of Thomas'' is an early 3rd-century text, one of the New Testament apocrypha within the Acts of the Apostles subgenre. The complete versions that survive are Syriac and Greek. There are many surviving fragments of the text. Scholars d ...
ch. 27, during an anointing ceremony, the apostle implores, "Come, elder of the five members, mind, thought, reflection, consideration, reason; communicate with these young men."
According to
Theodore bar Konai,
the five words for 'mind' are the equivalents of ''
hauna'' (sanity), ''
mad'a'' (reason), ''
re'yana'' (mindfulness), ''
mahshebhatha'' (imagination), ''
tar'itha'' (intention) – considered the Five Manifestations of the Father of Greatness which may provide the clue to the meaning of the five trees. These five would therefore be the causal factors in the experience of the Real.
Marvin Meyer writes: "The "five trees" in paradise are mentioned frequently in gnostic texts, ordinarily without explanation or elaboration. In
Manichaean
Manichaeism (; in ; ) is an endangered former major world religion currently only practiced in China around Cao'an,R. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''. SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 found ...
Psalm Book 161, 17–29, it is said that various features of life and faith are put together in groups of five. This section opens with the statement, 'For
iveare the trees that are in paradise ... in summer and winter.' On the trees in paradise according to
Genesis
Genesis may refer to:
Religion
* Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of humankind
* Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Bo ...
, see Genesis 2:9."
Senses
According to the
Naassenes
The Naassenes (Greek ''Naasseni,'' possibly from Hebrew נָחָשׁ ''naḥaš'', snake) were a Christian Gnosticism, Christian Gnostic sect known only through the accounts in the books known as the ''Philosophumena'' or the ''Refutation of all H ...
, "Paradise" in this allegory represents the human head. It has been suggested that the "five trees" represent the five human senses which produce one's internal worldview, knowledge of which is a requirement for purification and enlightenment. However, the body's five senses – representative of lower-level egoism and learned misperception – would more likely be considered an impediment to reunion with the divine.
See also
References
External links
* {{usurped,
"Five" in Manichaean myth}
Gnostic terms and concepts
Plants in the Bible
Trees in mythology
5 (number)