2 Trees of Eden

At Mark Brians looks at the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

In many cultures and religions we can find ideas and stories about seeds, plants and trees which bring to people goodness but also badness.

From the ancient Norse Yggdrasil to the sacred Bodhi tree in Buddhism, each culture has woven its unique tapestry around this symbol.{What is the Tree of Life ?}

In many folk tales we can hear how a tree was already showing off at the beginning of time, whose branches went high into the heavens. In several tales we hear how people came to sit under such a tree of life and became inspired, like Buddha came to sit when he attained Enlightenment (Bodhi) at Bodh Gaya in Bihar, India.

While the origins of The Tree of Life, for many, may be shrouded in legend, its significance is universally acknowledged as a representation of interconnectedness, growth, and eternity. But for lovers of God it has so much more to comprehend.

giant sequoias

Trees, along with plants and seed-bearing things, come to life by the Word of God as part of the creation sequence on the third day. We namely believe that God gave the order that the land would sprout with vegetation — every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. (Gen 1:11–12)

Every time when evening passed, and morning came, God looked at what He created and saw that it was good.

Along with the other vegetation which grows on the third day in the waters and on the dry land, trees are seed-bearing and fruit-bearing. They are the first living and life-bearing things called into the creation. It are those plants and the fruit of the trees that God gives to mankind as food (Gen 1:29). As this initial gift God makes abundantly clear, every fruit-bearing tree and seed-bearing plant is to be for food for the race of Adam.

2 special trees

The two trees of the Garden of Eden, though unique among the trees and plants of the world, are still “according to their kind” as fruit-bearing trees — they are food. God places them in the Garden, and he permits the Tree of Life to be eaten without delay or hindrance.

But he places a prohibition on eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Etz HaDa’as Tov v’Rah (Tree of moral). This is not the intrusion of an arbitrary temptation, but the restriction of something already proclaimed to be good, given to mankind for our consumption.

This restriction will make more sense as we understand each of the Trees in turn.

says Mark Brians.

He recognises that

The Tree of Life is the gift of the sustaining power of God. Those who eat of it live forever (Gen 3:22). {2 Trees of Eden & What They Mean: Knowledge of Good & Evil vs. Life: The second tree}

For him

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, on other hand, while being for food is not permitted to be eaten by Adam or Eve at the beginning of their time in Eden. This commandment carries with it a consequence, that in the day when Adam eats of it he will suffer death (Gen 2:17).

What this tree was cannot be a great mystery. It was, like the other trees, pleasant to the eyes and god for food (Gen 2:9, 3:6). By eating it, humanity was to gain knowledge and insight: authority in matters of good and evil.

It was more than a thing to be avoided: the Knowledge of Good and Evil did not lie in the sheer act of resisting the temptation to take from it. Nor is there anything in Scripture which suggests that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a mere antithesis to the Tree of Life, and that by the avoidance of the one humanity might be rewarded with a taste of the other. {2 Trees of Eden & What They Mean: Knowledge of Good & Evil vs. Life: The second tree}

According to Crossroman

The sin was not necessarily the resultant action in defiance of God’s command, but was perhaps that simple stirring of what might be termed ‘rebellion’ against the authority of God.{We were destroyed by the knowledge of good and evil until we were restored by it – 3022}

Mark Brians finds that the knowledge imparted was indeed a knowledge of good and evil, but it was a knowing sundered from the all-knowing Godhead. He writes:

Knowledge after the Fall originates with the sinful self, which is the first place to which Adam and Eve look when their eyes are opened (Gen 3:7), instead of in the person of God. Subsequently, the ability of all mankind to adjudicate good and evil went askew. We have become a law unto ourselves, and each does what it right in his own eyes (cf. Rom 2:14; Deut 12:8; Judg 17:6). {2 Trees of Eden & What They Mean: Knowledge of Good & Evil vs. Life: The second tree}

From the onset, man had to find his place in the paradise God had given to mankind. There he had to make the right choices: choose good over evil. The way to do this was by the rejection of this fruit of the knowledge of evil, by the acceptance of the knowledge of the good.

The knowledge of good and evil, therefore, far from being an immutably evil thing, is a gift granted by the Lord in his time and in accordance with maturity. {2 Trees of Eden & What They Mean: Knowledge of Good & Evil vs. Life: The second tree}

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Preceding

1. An openingschapter explaining why things are like they are and why we may have hope for better things
2. Bereshith 2 Man and Woman placed in a Royal Garden
3. Adam and the Tree of Life
4. The figure of Eve
5. Literalist and non-literalist views
6. No good without some evil mixed in
7. Being Jewish is a Blessing

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Find also to read

1. Genesis 1 story does not take away an evolution
2. Genesis – Story of creation 4 Genesis 2:16-25 Warning for Adam and Eve
3. Genesis – Story of creation 6 Genesis 3:13-24 Enmity and curse
4. Genesis – Story of creation 5 Genesis 3:1-12 Eating of the fruit-tree of knowledge
5. An anarchistic reading of the Bible (2)—Creation and what follows
6. From nothingness and choices being made
7. From nothingness to a growing group of followers of Jeshua 1 Fall of man
8. Orders for the first human beings and Rebellion against their Maker
9. Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 1
10. Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 2
11. Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 3
12. Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 4
13. Moment of getting knowledge and its consequence
14. United flesh and knowingly actions
15. Fog, brass and light for the eyes
16. Conscience, seeing good and bad, having to face punishment for misdeeds
17. Sources of evil
18. What others think about the tree of knowledge of good and evil
19. Necessity of a revelation of creation 2 Organisation of a system of things
20. Necessity of a revelation of creation 5 Getting understanding by Word of God 3
21. Necessity of a revelation of creation 8 By no means unintelligible or mysterious to people
22. Necessity of a revelation of creation 11 Believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God
23. A multifold of elements in creation and a bad choice made
24. First mention of a solution against death 1 To divine, serpent, opposition, satan and adversary
25. First mention of a solution against death 2 Harm or no harm and naked truth
26. First mention of a solution against death 3 Tempter Satan and man’s problems
27. First mention of a solution against death 4 A seed for mankind
28. First mention of a solution against death 7 Human sacrifice
29. A solution for a damaged relationship 1 All vegetation for food except one fruit
30. Elohim avoiding man to violate His other commandment
31. Man enticed to long for more
32. In times of flooding and other miseries
33. The Way of God or the way of the world?
34. A solution for a damaged relationship 3 Insight and prophesies given
35. Going in the wrong direction in seeking Torah obedience – according Sir Anthony Buzzard
36. Being Jewish is a Blessing
37. Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #1
38. A Tree of Life in CoViD times
39. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #2 Beginning of mankind
40. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #4 The Fall
41. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #5 Temptation, assault and curse
42. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #6 Curse and solution
43. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #8 Looking for the 2nd Adam
44. Today’s thought “A Perfect World” (January 02)
45. Today’s thought “The integrity of the upright guides them” (April 01)
46. Today’s thought “The one who conquers will …” (July 1)
47. Matthew 18:7-11 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Danger of Stumbling-blocks

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Further related

1. Hebrew Language #14 Hebrew Literature #11 French school of the 11th century
2. Sancta Claus is not God
3. A birthday passed nearly unnoticed
4. The destructive man and our duty as Christians
5. About a fleshless diet
6. What is the Tree of Life ?
7. The Covenant of Life
8. Tree Of Life
9. October 8th – Revelation 22:1-5
10. Live by the Spirit’s Flow from the Redeeming God 42-1-5
11. “They will reign forever and ever.” ~Apostle John
12. Dp. The roots of the tree called Life
13. Our Tree Of Life
14. I am becoming a Tree
15. What If We’re Wrong About The Forbidden Fruit?
16. Kuyper, Common Grace 1.27a. What is the “knowledge” of good and evil?
17. We were destroyed by the knowledge of good and evil until we were restored by it – 3022
18. Barbie and the garden of eden – what it means to be human