The Palm Tree in the Bible (1)
Symbol of the Tree of Life

André H. Roosma
19 Jan. 2012 (NL orig.: 7 Jan. 2012)

Did you ever hear that in the oldest Bible manuscripts the palm tree probably appeared thousands of times? One of the letter-symbols in the script of Israel of the time before 500 before Christ looked like this:

This old pictograph of the letter that was later replaced by the samekh and sin was a stylized picture of a palm tree, as was revealed by a recent investigation.¹

From the same research it appeared why we still associate paradise or a paradisely isle with palm trees. Already in the third millennium before Christ the entire Middle East saw the palm tree (especially the date palm) as symbol for the tree of life – in itself about the most desired, paradisiacal plant in human history. Any one who ate from it, would never die anymore...

photo: date tree full of fruit (c) Guus Molenaar, Huizen, NL

A palm tree full of fruit
© Guus Molenaar, Huizen, NL.

Now, anyway they knew in those days that dates from the palm were a most rapidly working and abundant source of energy. Fresh dates belong to the fruits most rich in sugar and vitamins in the world. And sugars from dates become actively available in your body very rapidly – they are absorbed into the blood stream even faster than pure glucose! Extremely useful and desirable, when one was exhausted after walking through a hot desert all day!
Next to this, the warmth of the desert could deceive easily: one thought to see water on the horizon, but on coming closer there was only more hot sand; a fata morgana. Upon observing a palm tree, however, one knew: there really is water; palm trees usually stood by an oasis.
Another aspect of the date tree is that throughout the entire Middle East, already for millennia, the dates are seen as the prime agent for enhancing male fertility and sexual appetite. In fact we find this even in the Bible itself, amongst others in Genesis 30: 14-18. When Leah’s son Jehudah comes home with dudaim (love appels, i.e. dates), Leah uses them to buy a night with Jacob from Jacob’s favorite, Rachel. That the fruits involved here are dates, is confirmed by the name given by Leah to the son that is born nine months later: ישׂשׂכר - Issaskhar; in the old script: , literally: ‘I/he gave the palm tree [fruit]s into the mighty hand of the other’.
Still another aspect of Israeli date palms is their own fertility. Not only can a palm tree produce gigantic quantities of fruits, these fruits also posses an enormous germinal force. Near Massadah date kernels have been found of about 2000 years old, that still had life in them! Some appeared able to grow into a healthy palm tree!
In short, that association of the palm tree with the Tree of Life is not so strange at all!