Tree of Life shelf incl. tumbled stones Golden Triangle.

The biblical tree of life or tree of life (Hebrew: עץ החיים; Etz haChayim) is mentioned in the Bible book of Genesis in verse 2:9 as the tree that was planted by God along with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden (Paradise) and the fruits of which give eternal life (immortality). After Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the Bible records that both were banished from the Garden of Eden to prevent them from eating the fruit of the tree of life: "Then God thought LORD: Now man has become like us, now he has the knowledge of good and evil. Now I will prevent him from reaping the fruit of the tree of life, for if he ate it, he would live forever." — (NBV, Gen 3:22), Thus, according to the Bible story, Adam and Eve were separated from the tree of life and made mortal. In the Christian New Testament, this banishment from the Garden of Eden is offset by the 'planting' of the new tree of life (Jesus) on the side of man. In the book of Revelation of John the Koinè-Greek phrase xylon zoës (ξύλον ζωής) is used three times (2:7, 22:2 and 22:19), which in Dutch translations is literally translated as 'tree of life' or 'tree of life' translated (22:19 is also translated as 'book of life' in some translations). The 'tree of life' is used several times in the Bible book of Proverbs in connection with Wisdom. As an image it describes the value of Wisdom. Wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace it (Prov. 3:18). A righteous man plants a tree of life (Prov. 11:30). Fulfilled desire (as opposed to unfulfilled hope) is a tree of life (Prov. 13:12). Calm words (as opposed to a false tongue) are a tree of life (Prov. 15:4). The writer of Proverbs seems to have a predilection for the image of the tree of life, but it is never explicitly stated. The image as such probably has sufficient eloquence for the writer. The tree of life is represented in several examples of sacred geometry and is a central point in Kabbalah (the mystical study of the Torah), where it is represented as the sefiroth. The Germanic Tree of Life. The Irminsul was an important sanctuary for the Saxons of the eighth century AD. with presumably great symbolic significance. It is mentioned and described briefly in the Annales regni Francorum, the Translatio St. Alexandri of Rudolf of Fulda and in the Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum (Book I, chapter 8) of Adam of Bremen. The latter both use exactly the same words and describe the Irminsul as a large, erected wooden trunk that, according to the Saxons, supported the entire world. However, Adam van Bremen says that he copied the data from Einhard (ca 770-841). However, his work has not survived. In Einhard's words, according to Adam van Bremen: Truncum quoque ligni non parvae magnitudinis in altum erectum sub divo colebant, patria eum lingua Irminsul appellantes, quod Latine dicitur universalis columpna, quasi sustinens omnia. Translated this means: Also they used to worship a wooden trunk of not small size erected on high under the open sky, which they called in the language of their homeland Irminsul, which in Latin is universalis columna (= al-pillar). who, as it were, supported everything. The kabbalistic tree of life is a model with which hermetic kabbalists symbolize the entire universe and its origin. This tree of life has a different shape than the one known to the Jewish kabbalists. The first publication in which this tree of life appeared was Athanasi Kircher's Oedipus Aegypticus of 1652. Robert Fludd adapted this diagram in his Complete Works of 1617.