Swedenborg says that in general, plants in the Bible represent facts, thoughts and ideas – intellectual things. This makes sense, if you think about it. Plants are rooted in place, but can grow and spread and bend in the wind. Facts are similarly rooted, staying firmly in place, but can grow into amazing forms and great heights, representing the many thoughts and concepts that can grow from a given set of facts.
Trees are, of course, the largest, strongest and most significant of the plants. In general, then, they represent the deepest and most significant intellectual concepts: the ones that come to us most directly from the Lord. What these are, exactly, varies depending on us and our states. The innocent people of the Most Ancient Church, who were in a state of loving the Lord, understood what was true automatically and internally through what Swedenborg calls “perception”; people in lower states (including most of us) have to work a little harder to learn it, through reading the Lord’s Word and following the Lord’s teachings.
Swedenborg says that in other parts of the Bible, especially in the prophets and New Testament parables, the meaning of “tree” is broader, meaning not just a person’s intellectual concepts but the whole person.
Passages from Swedenborg
Apocalypse Explained 403
[2] That the fig-tree signifies the natural man is from correspondence; for in heaven gardens and paradises appear, where there are trees of every kind, and every tree signifies something of the Divine, which is communicated to angels from the Lord. In general, the olive signifies the celestial which is of the good of love; the vine, the spiritual which is of the truth from that good; and the fig-tree, the natural, which is derived from the spiritual or the celestial. And because those trees signify such things, therefore they also signify the angel or man with whom such things exist; but in a general sense they signify a whole society, because every society in the heavens is formed so as to present the image of one man. But in the spiritual sense those trees signify the church; the olive, the celestial church; the vine, the spiritual church; and the fig-tree, the natural church, which is the external church corresponding to the internal. From these considerations it is evident why it is that the fig-tree is said to signify the natural man, that is, the Natural in man.
Apocalypse Explained 109
[2] The reason why the tree of life signifies the good of love, and thence heavenly joy is, that trees signify those things that are internally in man, which pertain to his interior mind (mens), or his external mind (animus), the boughs and leaves those things which pertain to the knowledges (cognitiones) of truth and good, and the fruits the goods of life themselves. This signification of trees originates in the spiritual world; for in that world trees of all kinds are seen; and these trees correspond to the interiors of the minds of angels and spirits; beautiful and fruitful trees to the interiors of those who are in the good of love, and thence in wisdom; trees less beautiful and fruitful to those who are in the good of faith; but trees bearing leaves only, and without fruit, to those who are only in the knowledges (cognitiones) of truth; and trees of a dismal hue, with malignant fruits, to those who are in knowledges (cognitiones) and in evil of life; but by those who are not in knowledges, and are in evil of life, trees are not seen, but instead stones and sand.
These appearances in the spiritual world, actually flow from correspondence; for the interiors of the mind of the inhabitants of that world are by such forms actually presented before their eyes. (These things may be seen better from two articles in the work, Heaven and Hell; in the first, where the correspondence of heaven with all things of the earth is treated of, n. 103-115; and in the other, where representatives and appearances in heaven are treated of, n. 170-176, and n. 177-190.) [3] This then is why trees are so often mentioned in the Word, by which are signified those things which pertain to a man’s mind; and why it is, that in the first chapters of Genesis, two trees are said to have been placed in the garden of Eden, one of which was called the tree of life, and the other the tree of knowledge (scientia). By the tree of life mentioned there is signified the good of love to the Lord, and thence heavenly joy, which those possessed who at that time formed the church, and who are meant by the man and his wife; and by the tree of knowledge is signified the delight of knowledges (cognitiones) without any other use than to be accounted learned, and to acquire renown for erudition, solely for the sake of honour or gain. The reason why the tree of life also signifies heavenly joy is, because the good of love to the Lord, which is specifically signified by thattree, has heavenly joy in it. (See the work, Heaven and Hell, n. 395-414, and The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, n. 230-239.)
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 102
- Verse 9 And Jehovah God caused to spring up out of the ground every tree desirable to the sight and good for food; and thetree of life* in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
‘Tree’ means perception, ‘tree desirable to the sight’ the perception of what is true, ‘tree good for food’ the perception of what is good, ‘treeof life’ love and faith deriving from love, and ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ faith derived from sensory evidence, that is, from knowledge.
True Christian Religion (Rose) n. 468
468
The following passages in the Word show that a tree means a human being:
All the trees of the field must recognize that I, Jehovah, will humble the tall tree; I will exalt the humble tree; I will wither the thriving tree and cause the dried-out tree to germinate. (Ezekiel 17:24)
Blessed are the people who take good pleasure in the law. They will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which will produce fruit in its time. (Psalms 1:1, 2, 3; Jeremiah 17:7, 8)
Praise Jehovah, you fruit trees. (Psalms 148:9)
The trees of Jehovah are drenched. (Psalms 104:16)
The axe lies against the root of the tree. Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down. (Matthew 3:10; 7:16-20)
Either make the tree good and its fruit good or make the tree rotten [and its fruit rotten], for a tree is recognized by its fruit. (Matthew 12:33; Luke 6:43, 44)
I will start a fire that will consume every thriving tree and every dried-out tree. (Ezekiel 20:47)
Since a tree means a person, therefore it was decreed that “in the land of Canaan a tree’s fruit that is good to eat should be circumcised” (Leviticus 19:23, 24). Since olive oil means a person of the heavenly church, we read of “the two witnesses who were prophesying, that they were two olive trees standing next to the Lord of the whole earth” (Revelation 11:4). Likewise Zechariah 4:3, 11, 12, 14; and in David, “I am an olive tree, thriving in the house of God” (Psalms 52:8); and in Jeremiah, “Jehovah has called your name ‘a thriving olive tree, beautiful in its fruit'” (Jeremiah 11:16, 17), besides many more passages, which because of their abundance are not presented here.
Apocalypse Revealed (Rogers) n. 89
- “‘I will give to eat from the tree of life.'” This symbolizes an assimilation of the goodness of love and charity from the Lord.
In the Word, to eat means, symbolically, to assimilate, and the treeof life symbolizes the Lord in respect to the goodness of love. Thus eating of the tree of life symbolizes an assimilation of the goodness of love from the Lord.
To eat means, symbolically, to assimilate because as natural food, when eaten, is assimilated into the life of a person’s body, so spiritual food, when received, is assimilated into the life of his soul.
The tree of life symbolizes the Lord in respect to the goodness of love because that is what the tree of life symbolizes in the Garden of Eden, and because a person has celestial and spiritual life from the goodness of love and charity that he receives from the Lord.
Many passages make mention of a tree, and it means a person of the church, and in the broadest sense the church itself, its fruit meaning goodness of life. The reason is that the Lord is the tree of life, the source of every good in the church and in a person of the church. But more on this subject in its proper place.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2972
- ‘And every tree which was in the field’ means the interior cognitions of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a tree’ as perceptions when the celestial Church is the subject, dealt with in 103, 2163, but cognitions when the spiritual Church is the subject, dealt with in 2722 – interior cognitions here because the words ‘everytree which was in the field’ are used, followed by ‘which was in all its borders round about’, by which exterior cognitions are meant; and from the meaning of ‘the field’ as the Church, dealt with already. Mention is made of the tree in the field and in its borders round about for the sake of that internal sense; otherwise it would not have been worth any mention in the Word, which is Divine.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 125
- Verse 16 And Jehovah God commanded the man and said, From every tree in the garden you may indeed eat.
‘Eating of every tree’ is recognizing and knowing, from perception, what good and truth are; for, as stated already, ‘a tree’ means perception. Members of the Most Ancient Church possessed the cognitions of true faith by means of revelations, for they talked to the Lord and to angels. They were also taught through visions and dreams, which to them were supremely delightful and blissful. They received perception from the Lord continually; and as a result of that perception, when they thought from things in their memory they instantly perceived whether these were true and good, insomuch that when anything false came up they not only had nothing to do with it but were also horrified. This is also the state of angels. Later on however knowledge of what is true and good took the place of the perception which the Most Ancient Church enjoyed, a knowledge based on what had been previously revealed, and later, on things revealed in the Word.