Tree

Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a tree provides a view of the unedited texts. Like other stories, it witnesses to the volume of documents that may come out of the genome.

Story In Daniel

The book of Daniel begins with the story of how Daniel came to be in Babylon. The key verse is how Daniel is to be trained in the language of Babylon.

4boys in whom was no blemish, those who were handsome in their appearance and skillful in wisdom and possessing knowledge and edified in the mind, those who were able in power to stand in the temple of the king to his service, and to teach them the scrolls and the tongue of the Chaldeans. A Proverbs 1:4 (Daniel 1:4 BRB)

This sets the context for understanding the rest of the book. It is parables about the history of language from his day until our modern era. Daniel, at the direction of Nebuchadnezzar, appears to have invented Hebrew and established the canon of the Old Testament through his time.

The consequences of his work are explained through a series of stories that give parables for the next 2550 years.

The Tree

By chapter 4, Daniel is asked to interpret another dream of the king. The important paragraph in this story is the following.

9Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and no mystery is hidden from you, this is the vision of my dream that I have seen. Tell me its interpretation. Daniel 4:910These were the visions which I saw in my bed. I saw a tree in the middle of the land and its height was great. 11The tree grew high and was strong and its height reached to the skies and its view to the end of all the land. 12Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant and in it was food for all. The animals of the field lived under it and the birds of the air rested in its boughs and all flesh was fed from it. Daniel 4:10-12 (Daniel 4:9-12 BRB)

The following points in this story map to other stories of huge amounts of textual data coming from somewhere, apparently from the genome.

  • vs. 11) a view to the end of the land.

  • vs. 12a) food for all.

  • vs. 12b) all flesh fed from it.

These aspects of this tree fold to other stories about the documents that will fill or cover the whole world. John is on the same idea and interprets this as text.

25They asked him saying to him, Why then do you baptize if you are not the anointed nor Elijah nor the prophet? (John 1:25 BRB)

Nebuchadnezzar's work in producing the Bible cut down an earlier work. This passage gives a picture.

Given the prophetic flow of the book of Daniel, it is giving a sense of what the tree can regrow back into after Nebuchadnezzar's work is removed.

So this story gives a picture of what happens when the text in the genome is found and is restored to public access. A massive tree providing sustenance for everyone, everywhere.

Trees Generally

So the story of the trees in the garden may have an echo here.

Other tree stories too may be pointing at a huge volume of eventual text.

Phil Stone 2022-08-16