The Literal Meaning of Genesis (continued)
CHAPTER 4
The literal and the figurative meanings in Scripture texts. The meaning of Genesis 2.9.
8. Serious consideration must be given to the words that follow: ... the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.'© We should take care not to be compelled to turn to allegory and end up with these not being trees at all but something else signified by the name of tree. For it is said of wisdom, She is a tree of life to all those who lay hold of her.*' Nevertheless, although there is the eternal Jerusalem in heaven, a city has been built on earth by which the heavenly Jerusalem is signified. Moreover, Sarah and Hagar signify the two testaments, yet they were two women who actually existed.'* Finally, although Christ through the suffering on the wood of the cross bathes us with spiritual water, nevertheless He was also the rock which when struck by wood poured forth water for the thirsting people, concerning which it is said, And the Rock was Christ. 1° All these events signified something other than what they were, but none the less they themselves existed in the world of material reality. And when they were narrated by the sacred historian, they were not set forth in figurative language, but rather in a narrative of events that prefigured what was to come.
Hence, there was a tree of life no less than the Rock which was Christ, and God did not want man to live in Paradise without the mysteries of spiritual things made present in material things. Man, then, had food in the other trees, but in the tree of life there was a sacrament.?° And what did it signify except wisdom, of which it was said, She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her, just as it was said of Christ that He is a Rock pouring forth water to all who thirst for Him?
He is rightly called by the name of that which signified Him before His coming. He is the Lamb immolated on the Passover; nevertheless, that immolation was represented not just by words but also by a real act. For one cannot say that that lamb was not a lamb; it was truly a lamb, and it was slain, and it was eaten.?!