From Cedar to Hyssop
VIII. THE LEGEND OF LOT AND THE TREE
OF THE CROSS[1]
This legend is told at the Greek Convent
of the Cross, which lies in a charming and flowery valley near Jerusalem. In
the old church there, interesting also far its frescos and mosaics, is a series
of paintings illustrating the story, and under the altar a little fresco of the
last scene, Lot watering the Tree of the Cross. In front of the altar is a
circle of marble inset into the floor and there pilgrims kneel in adoration,
while the priest, letting down a long spoon into the cave below, brings them up
a tiny pinch of that blessed earth in which once the Holy Tree of the Cross did
grow. The story told in the church runs as follows:
"Abraham before he died gave Lot
three shoots to plant and these he set where now stands the convent of the
Cross, and they remained green, but did not grow at all.
After his departure from Sodom, Lot
fell into sin, and was warned by an angel that he could not be saved unless the
shoots grew, and to ensure this he must water them with water from the River
Jordan. So he went down with his donkey into the valley to get the water. On
his way back, as he passed by the Inn of the Good Samaritan, a pilgrim (some
say a Russian pilgrim) met him and begged for a drink and so thirsty was that
pilgrim that he drank the skin dry.
There was nothing for it but to go
down again to the river and bring water up again, but again on his return a
pilgrim met him and drank the skin dry. This happened three times and Lot was
in despair when the angel appeared to him and told him that the pilgrim was the
Evil One in disguise set there to tempt him and that as he had passed the test
satisfactorily he might now go and water the shoots. This he did, and the
shoots immediately began to grow, and became a tree, which was seen to be of
three kinds, Cedar, Cypress and Pine."
The picture of Lot watering the
strange Tree with its three branches of divers kinds, is the last of the series
in the church, but the priest, when explaining them, tells further how the Tree
stood until cut down by the Jews for the Temple of Solomon.
Rejected by the workmen, it was
recognized and worshipped by the Queen of Sheba, and on her advice, stowed away
by Solomon in his store houses below the Temple until the time appointed.
Other versions of the legend are told
in Jerusalem; the following one, told by one of the monks at the convent of S.
Gerasimus by the Dead Sea, carries the story back to Adam.
"When Adam lay dying he thought
on that fair Garden from which he had been cast forth and he sent his son Seth
to pray that he might be given one fruit from the Tree of Life. So Seth came
after many days to the Gate of the Garden and begged the angel to give him the
fruit. This could not be, but God in His mercy permitted the angel to give him
three seeds which he placed in his father's mouth before death came, and they were
buried with him. From the Patriarch's grave there sprang a tree unlike all
other trees, far though always green it grew not and remained so throughout the
years, unknown of men.
Now after Lot had fled from Sodom he
fell into grievous sin and was warned by an angel that his only hope of forgiveness
was to carry water from the River Jordan and water with it that small tree that
grew on Adam's grave.
So Lot set forth with his donkey,
filled his water skin from Jordan, and returned to Jerusalem. On the way there
he met a thirsty pilgrim who asked for a drink and when it was granted, drank
the skin dry. He went down again to Jordan and again on his return he met a
pilgrim who drank the water and after this had happened a third time Lot was
exhausted and fell by the way.
Then the angel appeared once more and
Lot said, "What shall I do? If I give not drink to the thirsty I do a
great wrong, and if I water not that tree I cannot be saved; and now I am faint
and like to die."
But the angel said, "Fear not,
each time thou didst give drink to a pilgrim an angel watered the tree."
Then Lot died in peace.
Now these legends have come down from
the medieval legends of the Cross,[2]
the best known version of which is contained in the Legenda Aurea, called
'Golden,' "for like as passeth golde in valewe all other metallys so this
legend excelleth all other books."[3]
What is curious in the Jerusalem
version is the prominence of the story of Lot and the Watering of the Tree, an
episode which does not occur at all in the Golden Legend.[4]
Perhaps this may be explained by the special honour in which Lot is held in
Palestine. To the Moslems he is a prophet of righteousness; he is also the
eponymous hero of the Dead Sea (Bahr Lut) and the people of the Cities of the
Plain were the People of Lot. More, he has become a Christian saint, and there
is even a church dedicated to him in Trans Jordan, the ruined Khirbet Mukhayat,
with its lovely mosaics and inscription therein to "Holy Lot." The
story of the Queen of Sheba is found in the mediaeval versions of the west but
not of the east, while the idea that the cross was made of different woods is
found not only in these but in many earlier writers. 'the Venerable Bede says
that they were of four kinds, box, cypress, cedar and pine, John Cantacumene
averred that only three were used, cedar, cypress and pine, as in our version,
others said they were cypress, palm and olive, or cedar, cypress and olive. In
the Golden Legend "there were four manner of trees, that is of palm, of
cypress, of cedar, and of olive." Interpretations are given of the meaning
of the woods, it has been said "the Cross was made of the palm of victory,
the cedar of incorruption, and the olives of royal and priestly
benediction,"[5]
or again, the cedar signifies power, the cypress suffering, and the olive joy
and peace. Most interesting is the mention of the palm wood because the Tree of
Life was very early conceived of as the palm tree.
Now in the Golden Legend Seth goes to
the Garden of Eden to procure the 'oil of Mercy' for his dying father and
receives three grains of the fruit of the Tree, which he lays under Adam's
tongue. The Tree here is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for later
we read: "the Cross by which we be saved came of the tree by which we be
damned," while in our Jerusalem legend the Tree of the Cross grew from the
seeds of the Tree of Life. It is as if in the Golden Legend, by the inclusion
of the Palm, the Tree of the Cross was given descent from both the Tree of
Knowledge and the Tree of Life.[6]
With these legends must also be
connected the story that the Cross was actually erected on the skull of Adam,
which is commemorated in the Chapel of Adam in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
– there where the first Adam was buried did the second Adam prevail. In such
ways as these did the loving imagination of the faithful in mediaeval times
link together the Tree of the Cross with the Trees of Eden and that Tree of
Life that grew "in the holy city Jerusalem" whose leaves "were
for the healing of the nations."
Cross from Achthamar on Lake Van (Turkey)