Form Insight

How ξύλον Works in Revelation 22:2

A focused form insight on Noun Nominative Singular Neuter in Revelation 22:2.

Focused term ξύλον xulon G3586 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter

Revelation 22:2 - BSB

Down the middle of the main street of the city. On either side of the river stood a tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit and yielding a fresh crop for each month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

The Question

How does ξύλον function in Revelation 22:2?

Short Answer

ξύλον is a Noun Nominative Singular Neuter in Revelation 22:2. The form supports reading the verse as a single, vivid life-image centered on the tree of life, while the surrounding words supply the actual meaning in context.

What the Form Is Doing

ξύλον appears in Revelation 22:2 as a Noun Nominative Singular Neuter. It functions as the head noun of the expression, naming the tree that is placed in the scene and then described as bearing fruit and having healing leaves.

Its nominative singular form helps present one focal image in the scene, and the genitive ζωης narrows it to the tree of life. The participles and objects around it describe what this tree does.

Why It Matters for Interpretation

The form supports reading the verse as a single, vivid life-image centered on the tree of life, while the surrounding words supply the actual meaning in context.

The nominative noun is the head of the tree-of-life phrase that anchors the scene's fruit and healing imagery.

Translation Effect

The noun phrase directly affects the rendering as tree of life.

The form guide should support the public Bible reading, not replace it with a private rendering.

What It Does Not Prove

Do not derive a separate doctrinal claim from nominative case, singular number, or neuter gender alone, and do not treat the form as changing the lemma into a different word.

Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.

Neuter gender is a grammatical class, not a theological gender claim.

Evidence from the Form Guide

The witness reads ξυλον in Revelation 22:2, in the sequence about the river, the tree of life, its fruit, and its leaves for the nations.

For readers and teachers, the form helps identify the main image in the sentence and keeps attention on the tree as the bearer of fruit and healing leaves.

What It Does Not Prove

  • Do not derive a separate doctrinal claim from nominative case, singular number, or neuter gender alone, and do not treat the form as changing the lemma into a different word.
  • Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
  • Neuter gender is a grammatical class, not a theological gender claim.
  • The case label helps describe function, but the surrounding phrase determines the sense.

Examples From Form Guides

Keep Studying

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Why Grammar Does Not Prove More Than The Passage Says

Keeps the exact form from carrying more interpretive weight than the passage supports.

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