i 8 p f a n t 'bop©, b©g©qb/, oriel bqpîc/*. UR© UTe© o£ eKelam. 1 9
I
‘ii‘
spirit of prophecy cried : “ Behold ! the Lord predicfts the virtues
of the Sacred Cross.” The Jews thereupon attacked the woman,
and having stoned her, they plunged the sacred wood of the Temple
into the piscina prohatica, of which the water acquired from that
moment healing qualities, and which was afterwards called the Pool
of Bethesda. In the hope of profaning it the Jews afterwards employed
the sacred wood in the construction of the bridge of Siloam,
over which everybody unheedingly passed, excepting only the
Queen of Sheba, who, prostrating herself,'’“paid homage to it and
prophetically cried that of this wood would one day be made the
Cross of the Redeemer.
Thus, although Adam by eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge,
came to know that which was evil, and could no longer be permitted
to partake of the fruit or essence of the Tree of Life, yet,
from its seeds, placed in his mouth after death, sprang the tree
which produced the Cross of Christ, by means of which he and his
race could attain to eternal life.
According to Prof. Mussafia,* an authority quoted by De
Gubernatis, the origin of this legend of Seth’s visit to Paradise is
to be found in the apocryphal gospel of Nicodemus, where it is
stated that the Angel Michael refused to give the oil of mercy to
Seth, and told him that Christ would one day visit the earth to
anoint all believers, and to conduct Adam to the Tree of Mercy.
Some of the legends collected by the Professor are very curious.
An Austrian legend records that the Angel Michael gave to
E v e and her son Seth a spray with three leaves, plucked from the
Tree of Knowledge, with directions to plant it on the grave of
Adam. The spray took root and became a tree, which Solomon
placed as an ornament in the Temple of Jerusalem, and which was
cast into the piscina prohatica, where it lay until the day of Christ’s
condemnation, when it was taken out and fashioned into the Cross
on which He suffered.
A Gernian legend narrates that E v e went with Seth to
Paradise, where she encountered the serpent; but the Angel
Michael gave her a branch of Olive, which, planted over the grave
of Adam, grew rapidly. After the death of Eve, Seth returned to
Paradise, and there met the Angel, who had in his hands a branch
to which was suspended the half of the Apple which had been
bitten by his mother Eve, The Angel gave this to Seth, at the
same time recommending him to take as great care of it as of
the Olive planted on Adam’s grave, because these two trees would
one day become the means of the redemption of mankind. Seth
scrupulously watched over the precious branch, and at the hour
of his death bequeathed it to the best of men. Thus it came into
the hands of Noah, who took it into the Ark with him. After the
Deluge, Noah sent forth the dove as a messenger, and it brought
* Treatise on the Legend of the Sacred Wood. Vienna, 1870.
to him a branch of the Olive planted on the tomb of Adam. Noah
religiously guarded the two precious branches which were destined
to be instrumental in redeeming the human race by furnishing the
wood of the Cross.
A second German legend states that Adam, when at the point
of death, sent Seth to Paradise to gather there for him some of the
forbidden fruit (probably this is a mistake for “ some of the fruit
of the Tree of Life ” ). Seth hesitated, saying as an excuse that
he did not know the way, Adam directed him to follow a tradt of
country entirely bare of vegetation. Arrived safely at Paradise,
Seth persuaded the angel to give him, not the Apple, but simply
the core of the Apple tasted by Eve. On Seth returning home,
he found his father dead ; so extradting from the Apple-core three
pips, he placed them in Adam’s mouth. P'rom them sprang three
plants that Solomon cut down -in order to form a cross—the selfsame
cross afterwards borne by our Saviour, and on which He
was crucified—and a rod of justice, which, split in the middle,
eventually served to hold the superscription written by Pilate,
and placed at the head of the Cross.
A legend, current in the Greek Church, claims the Olive as
the Tree of Adam : this, perhaps, is not suprising considering in
what high esteem the Greeks have always held the Olive. The
legend tells how Seth, going to seek the oil of mercy in Paradise,
in consequence of his father’s illness, was told by the angel that
the time had not arrived. The angel then presented him with
three branches—the Olive, Cedar, and Cypress : these Seth was
ordered to plant over Adam’s grave, and the promise was given
him that when they produced oil, Adam_ should rise restored to
health. Seth, following these instructions, plaited the three
branches together and planted them over the grave of his father,
where they soon became united as one tree. After a time this tree
was transplanted, in the first place to Mount Lebanon, and afterwards
to the outskirts of Jerusalem, and it is there to this day in the
Greek Monastery, having been cut down and the timber placed
beneath the altar. From this circumstance the Monastery was
called, in Hebrew, the Mother of the Cross. This same wood was
revealed to Solomon by the Queen of Sheba, and Solomon therefore
ordered it to be used in the foundation of a tower; but the tower
having been rent in twain by an earthquake which occurred at our
Saviour’s birth, the wood was cast into a pool called the prohatica
piscina, to which it imparted wonderful healing qualities.'''
* Sir John Maundevile, who visited Jerusalem about the middle of the fourteenth
century, states that to the north of the Temple stood the Church of St. Anne, “ oure
Ladyes modre : and there was our Lady conceyved. And before that chirche is a
gret tree, that began to growe the same nyght. . . • And in that chirche is a
Welle, in manere of a cisterne, that is clept Prohatica Piscina, that hath 5 entreez.
Into that welle aungeles were wont to come from Hevene, and bathen hem with inne :
and what man that first bathed him aftre the mevynge of the watre, was made hool of
what maner sykenes that he hadde.”
C— 2