The question here concerns the classical presence in early Christianity. All four gospels narrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, but only John specifies ‘fronds of palm trees.’ Phoinix means ‘palm tree’ and ‘phoenix’, so how does phoinikes resonate with its audience(s)? In early Christian literary and material culture, the phoenix signifies bodily resurrection and eternal life. In John’s gospel, for Greek-speaking audiences far from Palestine, the culminating sign of Lazarus prefigured Christian eschatology exactly as did the life-cycle of the phoenix and the branches of the phoinikes.
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