And having said these things, I added: That He whom the Scriptures show, after being crucified, will come again in glory—He bore as His symbol the tree of life, which was said to have been planted in paradise, and a symbol of the things that shall come to pass for all the righteous. Listen. Moses was sent with a rod for the redemption of the people, and holding this in his hands at the head of the people, he divided the sea; through it he saw water gush forth from the rock; and casting a piece of wood into the water at Marah, which was bitter, he made it sweet.
Jacob, by casting rods into the watering troughs, succeeded in making his uncle's flocks conceive, so that he might acquire the young born of them. The same Jacob boasts of having crossed the river with his staff. He said that a ladder appeared to him, and the Scripture has shown that God was set firmly upon it; and that it was not the Father, we have proved from the Scriptures. And by pouring oil upon a stone in that same place, Jacob is testified to have anointed a pillar to the God who appeared to him—anointed by that very God who appeared to him.
And that Christ was symbolically proclaimed as a 'stone' through many Scriptures, we have likewise proved; and that every anointing—whether with oil, or with stacte, or with the other anointing oils of the compounded ointment—pertained to Him, we have likewise proved, since the word says: 'Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.' For indeed all kings and anointed ones derived from Him their being called both kings and anointed; just as He Himself received from the Father the titles of king, and Christ, and priest, and angel, and whatever other such titles He has or had.
Aaron's rod, by producing a bud, showed him to be high priest. Isaiah prophesied that the Christ would come as a rod from the root of Jesse. And David says that the righteous man is like the tree planted by the channels of waters, which will give its fruit in its season, and whose leaf will not wither. And it is said that the righteous shall flourish like a palm tree.
From a tree God appeared to Abraham, as it is written, by the oak of Mamre. Seventy willows and twelve springs the people found when they had crossed the Jordan. David says he was comforted by God's rod and staff.
Elisha, by casting a piece of wood into the river Jordan, brought up the iron of the axe with which the sons of the prophets had gone to cut wood for building the house in which they wished to speak of and meditate on the law and the commandments of God; just as Christ our Lord, by being crucified on the tree and cleansing us through water, redeemed us who had been baptized with the gravest sins which we had committed, and made of us a house of prayer and worship. And it was a rod that revealed Judah to be the father of those born of Tamar through a great mystery.