In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Nephi saw a vision of the Tree of Life, just like his father. Yet when Nephi desired to know its meaning, his angelic guide didn’t give him a straightforward answer. Instead, Nephi was shown another vision—this time of the Virgin Mary and the birth of the Christ Child. This connection between a sacred tree and the mother of a divine being may seem strange to modern readers. But it fits exceptionally well in an ancient Israelite setting.

When explaining his vision, Nephi described Mary as “exceedingly fair and white.” He also said she was “most beautiful and fair above all other virgins.” This language parallels his earlier description of the Tree of Life itself, which was “exceeding of all beauty; and the whiteness thereof did exceed the whiteness of the driven snow”. For more info on sacred white trees in the ancient world, check out our latest video on that topic.

The point here is that Nephi’s vision clearly establishes a link between the Tree of Life and the Holy Virgin. Why was Nephi shown these images, and why did the angel think he would understand them? According to Latter-day Saint scholar Daniel C. Peterson, “Nephi’s vision reflects a meaning of the ‘sacred tree’ that is unique to the ancient Near East, and that, indeed, can only be fully appreciated when the ancient Canaanite and Israelite associations of that tree are borne in mind.”

The Canaanites were various groups of people who, at different times, populated the land of Israel and its surrounding regions. They were pretty much the next-door neighbors to the Israelites, which led to a lot of cultural exchange and overlap. The important thing for our discussion is that the head god of the Canaanite pantheon, known as El, had a wife or consort named Asherah. She was seen as a mother or wet nurse to the other gods, and even of human rulers. She was also strongly associated with sacred trees and their worship … which should ring some bells.

While it may come as a surprise to some, Asherah—or a version of her—was also venerated among ancient Israelites. This is now well-known to scholars, due to various lines of archaeological and textual evidence. For example, literally thousands of Asherah figurines have now been discovered in ancient Israelite contexts. And some inscriptions even seem to point to her status as the consort or wife of the God of Israel.  

Now some may see Asherah’s worship as just another example of forbidden polytheism, but Peterson suspects otherwise. He points out that Asherah was once part of Israelite temple worship and that, unlike the god Baal, she went virtually unopposed by early Israelite prophets. Much like the brazen serpent which Hezekiah removed from the temple, Peterson argues that Asherah was once an orthodox concept but that her veneration was later suppressed during various phases of religious reform.

If you really want to get into the weeds, there are plenty of publications on these topics. For now, it’s enough to say that Peterson’s general take on this issue is based on the views of mainstream biblical scholars, and that his conclusions are shared by many scholars within the Church.

Latter-day Saints recognize that many true teachings or concepts have been diluted or altered throughout history. So, even if many early Israelites did inappropriately worship Asherah (which is most likely the case), it doesn’t mean that everything about her identity or symbolism was always heretical.

Furthermore, Asherah clearly has connections to the Israelite Wisdom tradition, as seen in texts like Psalms and Proverbs, which personify Wisdom as a female. “Indeed,” writes Peterson, “in ancient Hebrew and Jewish literature, Wisdom appears as the wife of God, which can hardly fail to remind us of ancient Asherah.”

As a name, Asherah might be derived from the similar Hebrew root ashar, which has connotations of traveling and is sometimes used in the context of an approved way or path. This root can also mean “happiness.” For instance, in Proverbs 3 we read: “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom … Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.” So, here we have Tree of Life imagery closely associated with terms that in Hebrew would sound quite similar to Asherah, suggesting a possible wordplay is involved.

Similar associations turn up in Lehi and Nephi’s accounts in the Book of Mormon, which feature wanderers who need to be led along a straight and narrow path to the Tree of Life. One might recall that Lehi described the fruit of the Tree as “desirable to make one happy”.

As understood by non-Latter-day Saint scholar Samuel Zinner, Nephi’s vision highlights the “continuity between the tree of life, Lady Jerusalem, Lady Nazareth, and the Virgin Mary. These are all ultimately specializations or refractions of Asherah.” Margret Barker, another biblical scholar outside the Latter-day Saint tradition, explains, “This is the Heavenly Mother, represented by the tree of life, and then Mary and her Son on earth. This revelation to Joseph Smith was the ancient Wisdom symbolism, intact, and almost certainly as it was known in 600 BCE.”

With all this in mind, it makes a lot more sense why Nephi might have seen a connection between the Tree of Life and the Virgin Mary. The idea of a sacred tree associated with a divine mother had a long history in Israelite thought and was probably, at one point, an accepted religious symbol. Supporting this proposal is the fact that the Tree of Life visions in the Book of Mormon are infused with genuine features of the ancient Wisdom tradition.   

Most importantly, all of these details point to the conclusion that Jesus truly was the Messiah. Just as Nephi saw a virgin bearing the Christ-child in her arms, he saw that the Tree of Life bore precious white fruit which was able to give joy to all who partook of it. This is the joy of Jesus himself, who—as Nephi learned from his related visions—is a perfect manifestation of God’s love.