In Bereishit, we come across a very obscure passage, regarding the Tree of Life and immortality:
Genesis 3;
22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever
23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the
No further mention of this specific Tree of Life is made in the Torah, to my limited knowledge, and the prospect for Mankind is to remain mortal. It is used in a slightly different context in Mishlei – Proverbs : https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Prov+3%3A18%3B+11%3A30%3B+13%3A12%3B+15%3A4&version=NRSVUE
Later on we come across another obscure verse in Isaiah, where the prospect of immortality is prophesied, as a future event. It is unbelievable, to mere mortals, and as such it seems to have not become a prominent concept in Judaism (unlike resurrection, or Olam Haba):
Isaiah Chapter
25; 8
He will swallow
up death for ever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces;
and the reproach of His people will He take away from off all the earth; for
the LORD hath spoken it.
Isaiah is
prophesying, at the very least, a termination of the expulsion in Genesis 3, namely preventing
us from immortality. But Isaiah does not
mention the Tree of Life itself?
The question I
have, is whether he is referring to the Tree, is the prophecy indeed the
immortality conferred by the Tree of Life?
