The Tree of Life and the Grasp for Power: A Metonymic, Cross-testamental Reimagination of Revelation 22 and the Ara Paci

By exploring the function of sacred trees in both ancient Near Eastern and Roman imperial periods, the dissertation seeks to identify the biblical image of the Tree of Life in Revelation 22---and, in turn, Genesis 2--3---as an integral commentary on kingship and power. In order to interpret the Tree of Life in Revelation 22, one must engage its intertextual relationship to Genesis 2--3 along with the ancient Near Eastern iconography informing the function of the Tree of Life in the Eden narrative, while further considering the visual exegetical relationship to contemporaneous Roman imperial iconography of vegetation. The following research investigates the ideological implications of the Tree of Life through a tri-fold methodology engaging intertextuality, visual exegesis---specifically Critical Re-Imagination (CRI), and metonymy. Utilizing the vegetal theme of imperial sacred trees, the dissertation engages two intersections between biblical text and imperial iconography: the textual depiction of the Tree of Life in Revelation 22 with the contemporaneous Roman imperial iconography found on the Ara Pacis Augustae (9 B.C.E.), and the textual depiction of the Tree of Life in Gen 2--3 with the contemporaneous ancient Near Eastern imperial iconography of sacred trees as seen in the Ashurbanipal Garden frieze (ca. 669--631 B.C.E.). Within the Ara Pacis Augustae and the Ashurbanipal Garden frieze, vegetal imagery promotes the dominance of the emperor/king as both the earthly representative of the divine and the sole subject of empire, controlling all resources through the conquest of nations and people. The Ara Pacis Augustae displays the power of vegetation as an agent of empire through the metonymic, or meaning-making, function of scrolling acanthus iconography---in what this dissertation will propose is a counterpart to the Tree of Life imagery in Revelation 22. In an analogous discussion, the metonymic function of the ancient Near Eastern sacred trees in the Ashurbanipal Garden frieze will be explored as a counterpart to the Tree of Life in Genesis 2--3. Although one cannot determine with certainty whether the biblical writers had access to the imperial iconography in question and thus wrote the biblical text in reaction to this iconography, these images are expressions of contemporary "worldviews" in which the authors of Genesis and Revelation participated, in one way or another. When one reads the biblical texts "synoptically" with respective imperial iconography, discussions on kingship in these texts become as apparent as their own inclinations to reimagine the imperial order into a new way of being. By centering the Tree of Life as a commentary on kingship, the symbol serves to unearth myriad ways in which abuses of power impact the relationship between deity, humanity, and the earth. The metonymic function of the Tree of Life as related to kingship and associated with analogous iconography related to victory and eternity possesses the ability to reimagine new ways of existing outside of corrupt power structures while simultaneously allowing for the dangerous capability of reinscribing empire into the minds of interpreting communities.