Revelation 22:2; The Tree of Life

Revelation 22:2 (KJV)  In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 

The best analysis pictures a river flowing down the middle of the city’s broad street and each side of the river in the middle of the space between the street and each of the river banks. This is the arrangement that has the support of the Old Testament passage alluded to Ezekiel 47:7 (Alford, Swete).

Ezekiel 47:7 (KJV)  Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. 

The history of “the tree of life” goes back to Genesis 2:9, where God placed it in the original Garden of Eden.

Genesis 2:9 (KJV)  And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 

When man chose to disobey God, he lost his access to that tree (Genesis 3:22-24).

Genesis 3:22-24 (KJV)  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: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. 

During the period of no access to the tree, wisdom, the fruit of righteousness, and a soothing tongue are likened to it in a figurative way (Proverbs 3:18; 11:30; 15:4), but in the eternal city restoration of the access of the tree and even more privileges become reality.

Proverbs 3:18 (KJV)  She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her. 

Proverbs 11:30 (KJV)  The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise. 

Proverbs 15:4 (KJV)  A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit. 

Ezekiel’s account of the millennial river has all kinds of trees by month (Ezekiel 47:12).

Ezekiel 47:12 (KJV)  And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine. 

This account of the restored access to the Tree of Life retains the singular number of the noun “tree) from Genesis 2:9, but expands upon it through a description of a river lined with trees that resembles the picture in Ezekiel (Moffatt).

[Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8-22- An Exegetical Commentary. Moody 1995, 483-484]