Revelation 22:2

_ _ The harmonious unity of Scripture is herein exhibited. The Fathers compared it to a ring, an unbroken circle, returning into itself. Between the events of Genesis and those at the close of the Apocalypse, at least six thousand or seven thousand years intervene; and between Moses the first writer and John the last about one thousand five hundred years. How striking it is that, as in the beginning we found Adam and Eve, his bride, in innocence m Paradise, then tempted by the serpent, and driven from the tree of life, and from the pleasant waters of Eden, yet not without a promise of a Redeemer who should crush the serpent; so at the close, the old serpent cast out for ever by the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, who appears with His Bride, the Church, in a better Paradise, and amidst better waters (Revelation 22:1): the tree of life also is there with all its healing properties, not guarded with a flaming sword, but open to all who overcome (Revelation 2:7), and there is no more curse.

_ _ street of it — that is, of the city.

_ _ on either side of the river — Alford translates, “In the midst of the street of it (the city) and of the river, on one side and on the other” (for the second Greek, “enteuthen,” A, B, and Syriac read, ekeithen: the sense is the same; compare Greek, John 19:18); thus the trees were on each side in the middle of the space between the street and the river. But from Ezekiel 47:7, I prefer English Version. The antitype exceeds the type: in the first Paradise was only one tree of life; now there are “very many trees at the bank of the river, on the one side and on the other.” To make good sense, supposing there to be but one tree, we should either, as Mede, suppose that the Greek for street is a plain washed on both sides by the river (as the first Paradise was washed on one side by the Tigris, on the other by the Euphrates), and that in the midst of the plain, which itself is in the midst of the river’s branches, stood the tree: in which case we may translate, “In the midst of the street (plain) itself, and of the river (having two branches flowing) on this and on that side, was there the tree of life.” Or else with Durham suppose, the tree was in the midst of the river, and extending its branches to both banks. But compare Ezekiel 47:12, the millennial type of the final Paradise; which shows that there are several trees of the one kind, all termed “the tree of life.” Death reigns now because of sin; even in the millennial earth sin, and therefore death, though much limited, shall not altogether cease. But in the final and heavenly city on earth, sin and death shall utterly cease.

_ _ yielded her fruit every month — Greek, “according to each month”; each month had its own proper fruit, just as different seasons are now marked by their own productions; only that then, unlike now, there shall be no season without its fruit, and there shall be an endless variety, answering to twelve, the number symbolical of the world-wide Church (compare Note, see on Revelation 12:1; see on Revelation 21:14). Archbishop Whatley thinks that the tree of life was among the trees of which Adam freely ate (Genesis 2:9, Genesis 2:16, Genesis 2:17), and that his continuance in immortality was dependent on his continuing to eat of this tree; having forfeited it, he became liable to death; but still the effects of having eaten of it for a time showed themselves in the longevity of the patriarchs. God could undoubtedly endue a tree with special medicinal powers. But Genesis 3:22 seems to imply, man had not yet taken of the tree, and that if he had, he would have lived for ever, which in his then fallen state would have been the greatest curse.

_ _ leaves ... for ... healing — (Ezekiel 47:9, Ezekiel 47:12). The leaves shall be the health-giving preventive securing the redeemed against, not healing them of, sicknesses, while “the fruit shall be for meat.” In the millennium described in Ezekiel 47:1-23 and Revelation 20:1-15, the Church shall give the Gospel-tree to the nations outside Israel and the Church, and so shall heal their spiritual malady; but in the final and perfect new Jerusalem here described, the state of all is eternally fixed, and no saving process goes on any longer (compare Revelation 22:11). Alford utterly mistakes in speaking of “nations outside,” and “dwelling on the renewed earth, organized under kings, and saved by the influences of the heavenly city” (!) Compare Revelation 21:2, Revelation 21:10-27; the “nations” mentioned (Revelation 21:24) are those which have long before, namely, in the millennium (Revelation 11:15), become the Lord’s and His Christ’s.