Eden has two trees, the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. If the tree of life meant to give eternal life, the tree of knowledge of good and evil is for what purpose it was planted there? Is it only for the test of obedience? In Revelations the tree of life is present but the other tree is absent. Does that mean that the tree of knowledge of good and evil is death? Every input is much appreciated!
People in Heaven would already have knowledge of Good and Evil so why the need for a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil ?
You can put it this way: God also made heaven and hell. Just like He made them trees, God gave man free will and said i will send my son to die for all humanity who chooses to repent and believe when my Spirit visits them and doesnt refuse has eternal life and not eternal death. God said don’t eat out of the tree for in the day you eat you shall shurly die. So they were warned, they Could’ve chose to live, but they chose to die. Same thing with us. We can either choose to live or die eternally.
The Bible didn’t say there were only two trees. There are might be many good trees over there. It just proves we as human want to do what we are told not to do, a spirit of disobedient and rebellious!!
Tree of Knowledge was placed in Eden for Good purpose. When Adam and Eve were growing and mature enough, they should be able to take its fruits. The problem was they by-pass God and take its fruit as their owned will, tempted by The Serpent or the Shining one.
The whole purpose of the tree was to test humanity’s obedience to Him. The constant themes throughout Scriptures was that God tests His people.
God wanted us to love HIM. Maybe it was part of us choosing Him?
I didn’t know.
Then think about the term KNOWLEDGE OF. Maybe they were here all along, but WE didn’t know the difference. When we found out, we chose evil allll the time.
God didn’t have to tell us when we were lying. We chose to misrepresent what we knew time and time again.
But who knows.
Here is an interesting take: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrfr2vUKyAM
I don’t answer “Why” questions if Scripture is silent.
Everything happened by God’s Divine will to fulfill His eternal purpose for mankind. Jesus was even predestined to die from the foundation of the Earth.
I don’t think it was a test of obedience so much as the possibility of obedience. No one can ever really obey if there’s not the possibility of disobedience. So that tree was there to give them the possibility to fail, and, through that, give them the possibility to succeed.
Jesus Himself was rewarded for His obedience.
“You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness above Your companions.”
So the irony is that that tree really was growing there to give Adam and Eve a chance to be like God…..in being obedient.
Satan twisted that healthy desire that they had naturally and used it to seek an alternative that was not offered to them: a chance to be like God….in knowing good and evil.
The basic principle or law of any creation is to test it by the Creator for it’s functionality. For example, a high tech car cannot be sold in the market unless it is tested vigorously first to prove it’s efficiency and then all necessary changes are done to remove the flaws, and then retested again finally before it is sold in the market. Likewise with all products.
And that’s exactly what our Creator also did with Adam and Eve as per the law of creation, He had to test them first in order for His perfect race of people who were made into His image to take authority and dominion over the rest of His creation. But unfortunately they failed the test and then He had to come with a plan to reconcile mankind to their creator by sacrificing His Son Jesus Christ and again put them through another test of choosing Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and thus inherit eternal life and also the eventual promise of a new Heaven and a New Earth after the tempter satan alongwith his cohorts are bound and thrown into the lake of fire.
Except we test to see results, because we don’t know the outcomes.
God didn’t need to test anything to know the outcome or to see how it performs.
God’s knows it all from start to finish and before after.
God’s ways aren’t our ways. He’s totally sovereign
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The Age of Accountability.
People are accountable to their actions knowing good and evil.
In revelation everything is revealed to human race that’s why the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil is vanished away. The Tree of life is the one left with 12 manners of fruits
God didn’t want a relationship with robots, and if there was a right decision, there is also a wrong decision, and God isn’t going to hide the potential for the wrong decision but freely lets us choose him or reject him in temptation
The tree of knowledge of good and evil was the wooden tree that brought sin into world through Adam bringing death.
The tree of life was the wooden cross that Jesus (new Adam) was crucified on bringing life.
Remember Jesus was known before the foundation of the world – 1 Peter 1:20 and Ephesians 1:4.
It shows how wonderfully good God is. The two choices demonstrates free will bestowed upon man.
Just as the temple was the place of God’s unique presence experienced by the priests, so Eden was the place where God walked with Adam. G.K. Beale notes, “The same Hebrew verbal form (Hithpael) used for God’s “walking back and forth” in the garden (Gen. 3:8) also describes God’s presence in the tabernacle (Lev. 26:12; Deut. 23:14 [23:15 MT]; 2 Sam. 7:6–7; Ezek. 28:14).”[6]
Adam is depicted as a priest with respect to his task, namely, “to work” (עָבְדָ֖) and “to keep” (שָׁמְרָֽ) the garden, which is the priest’s task in the temple (Num. 3:7–8; 8:25–26; 18:5–6; 1 Chron. 23:32; Ezek. 44:14).[7] Adam also donned priestly attire (Ezek. 28:13ff.).
The cherubim assumed Adam’s function to guard the tree of life (Gen. 3:24), which became memorialized in the tabernacle (cf. Exod. 25:18–22).
The “tree of life” (Gen. 2:9) was probably a model of the lampstand in the tabernacle (Exod. 25:31ff).[8]
Israel’s tabernacle and temple had wood carvings that gave it a garden-like ambiance (1 Kings 6:18, 29, 32, 35; 7:18–20).
Just as the entrance to Israel’s later temple was to face east and be on a mountain, and just as the end-time temple of Ezekiel was to face east (Ezek. 40:6) and be on a mountain (Ezek. 40:2; 43:12), so the entrance to Eden faced east (Gen. 3:24) and was situated on a mountain (Ezek. 28:14–16).
The ark, which contained the law, in the Holy of Holies echoed the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as both lead to wisdom.
As a river flowed out from Eden (Gen. 2:10), so a river flows from the eschatological temple (Ezek. 47:1–12; Rev. 21:1–2; cf. Ps. 36:8–9; Rev. 22:1–2).
Just as gold and onyx are in the garden (Gen. 2:11–12), so they are used to decorate the later sanctuaries and priestly garments (Exod. 25:7, 11, 17, 31).
Just as the temple had a tripartite structure of concentric circles of holiness (Holy of Holies > Holy Place > Courtyard), so the garden of Eden had the same (Eden > Garden > Outer World).
Ezekiel refers to “Eden, the garden of God… the holy mountain of God” and also alludes to it containing “sanctuaries” (28:18; cf. 7:24; Lev. 21:23; Jer. 51:51).
Just as the climax and purpose of creation was rest (Gen. 2:1–3), so the construction of the tabernacle culminates with rest (Exod. 31:12–17).
The tree of life represented the possibility of eternal life in paradise. The tree of knowledge of both good and evil represented knowledge but knowledge that was forbidden to mankind. The commandment not to eat it represented obedience to your creator or disobedience, keeping in allegiance with your creator or breaking allegiance with your creator. When Adam sowed into his flesh body that which was forbidden to be sowed into it he corrupted the seed of man with spiritual knowledge that he was forbidden to have that knowledge is what led men to be sinful. God had not created man equipped to handle having this kind of knowledge. Also because man disobeyed God and Obeyed Satan instead this gave Satan legal access to mankinds thoughts and imaginations. As scripture states Satan is a spirit that is now works in the children of disobedience, the children of disobedience are Adams children the offspring of his disobedience to God and the corruption that entered him at the time of his offence toward God. As we are all born from Adams corrupted seed we to are corrupted with a nature that is sinful, Satan working his will in us through that corruption. Adam and Eve died because of the knowledge they gained through disobedience. That death was implemented by removing them from the only source of everlasting life that God had placed on the earth in the garden of God “the tree of life”. Having been removed from that source of life they would now die, and it started the day they were removed from it. When Adam and Eve were removed from the tree of life so was the rest of mankind and so all men die in Adam. Why were we all removed from the tree of life when it was Adam and Eve who broke God’s commandment not us. Its because of our inherited corruption from Adam. Romans 5:19 Nobody with this corruption this nature can enter the kingdom of God. We were born of corrupted seed and we need to be born again of incorruptible seed which is the word of God the word of God is Jesus Christ and he lives and abides forever. Grace and Peace in Jesus name Alan.
For humans to prove to themselves who their first lo e was. Abraham faced the same thing when asked to Sacriface Isaac. And Noah to build the Ark.
I believe it is so we can have free will to choose God or to deny him. If there was no evil you wouldn’t have a choice
First you have to decipher the best exegesis of Genesis and decide if a literal interpretation is appropriate. Scholars commonly regard genesis 1-11 in a separate category of genre. I would argue that the author is painting a metaphorical picture to convey the concept of human free will.
“The Tree of Life
According to the sacred narrative, there were two trees standing side by side in the garden of Eden which had a peculiar symbolical or sacramental character. The one was called the Tree of Life, the other the Tree of Knowledge. The former was the symbol of life, and its fruit was not to be eaten except on the condition of man’s retaining his integrity. Whether the fruit of that tree had inherent virtue to impart life, i.e., to sustain the body of man in its youthful vigour and beauty, or gradually to refine it until it should become like to what the glorified body of Christ now is, or whether the connection between eating its fruit and immortality was simply conventional and sacramental, we cannot determine. It is enough to know that partaking of that tree secured in some way the enjoyment of eternal life. That this was the fact is plain, not only because man after his transgression was driven from paradise “lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” (Gen. 3:22); but also because Christ is called the Tree of Life. He is so called because that tree was typical of Him, and the analogy is, that as He is the source of life, spiritual and eternal, to his people, so that tree was appointed to be the source of life to the first parents of our race and to all their descendants, had they not rebelled against God. Our Lord promises (Rev. 2:7) to give to them who overcome, to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God. In heaven there is said (Rev. 22:2) to be a tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations; and again (verse 14), “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” The symbolical and typical import of the tree of life is thus clear. As paradise was the type of heaven, so the tree which would have secured immortal life to obedient Adam in that terrestrial paradise is the type of Him who is the source of spiritual and eternal life to his people in the paradise above.
The Tree of Knowledge
The nature and significancy of the tree of knowledge of good and evil are not so clear. By the tree of knowledge, indeed, it is altogether probable, we are to understand a tree the fruit of which would impart knowledge. This may be inferred, (1.) From analogy. As the tree of life sustained or imparted life, so the tree of knowledge was appointed to communicate knowledge. (2.) From the suggestion of the tempter, who assured the woman that eating of the fruit of that tree would open her eyes. (3.) She so understood the designation, for she regarded the tree as desirable to render wise. (4.) The effect of eating of the forbidden fruit was that the eyes of the transgressors were opened. And (5.), in the twenty-second verse, we read that God said of fallen man, “Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.” Unless this be understood ironically, which in this connection seems altogether unnatural, it must mean that Adam had, by eating the forbidden fruit, attained a knowledge in some respects analogous to the knowledge of God, however different in its nature and effects. This, therefore, seems plain from the whole narrative, that the tree of knowledge was a tree the fruit of which imparted knowledge. Not indeed from any inherent virtue, it may be, in the tree itself, but from the appointment of God. It is not necessary to suppose that the forbidden fruit had the power to corrupt either the corporeal or moral nature of man, and thus produce the experimental knowledge of good and evil. All that the text requires is that knowledge followed the eating of that fruit.
The words “good and evil” in this connection admit of three interpretations. In the first place, in Scripture, the ignorance of infancy is sometimes expressed by saying that a child cannot tell its right hand from its left; sometimes by saying, that he cannot discern between the evil and the good. Thus in Deut. 1:39, it is said, “Your children … had no knowledge between good and evil,” and in Is. 7:16, “Before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good.” On the other hand maturity, whether in intellectual or spiritual knowledge, is expressed by saying that one has power to distinguish between good and evil. Thus the perfect or mature believer has his “senses exercised to discern both good and evil,” Heb. 5:14. Agreeably to the analogy of these passages, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, is simply the tree of knowledge. The one expression is fully equivalent to the other. This interpretation relieves the passage of many difficulties. It is sustained also by the language of Eve, who said it was a tree desirable to make wise. Before he sinned, Adam had the ignorance of happiness and innocence. The happy do not know what sorrow is, and the innocent do not know what sin is. When he ate of the forbidden tree he attained a knowledge he never had before. But, in the second place the words, “good and evil” may be taken in a moral sense. If this is so, the meaning cannot be that the fruit of that tree was to lead Adam to a knowledge of the distinction between right and wrong, and thus awaken his dormant moral nature. That knowledge he must have had from the beginning, and was a good not to be prohibited. Some suppose that by the knowledge of good and evil is meant the knowledge of what things are good and what are evil. This is a point determined for us by the revealed will of God. Whatever He commands is good, and whatever He forbids is evil. The question is determined by authority. We cannot answer it from the nature of things, nor by considerations of expediency. Instead of submitting to the authority or law of God as the rule of duty, it is assumed that Adam aspired to know for himself what was good and what evil. It was emancipation from the trammels of authority that he sought. To this however, it may be objected that this was not the knowledge which he attained by eating the forbidden fruit. He was told that his eyes should be opened, that he should know good and evil; and his eyes were opened; the promised knowledge was attained. That knowledge, however, was not the ability to determine for himself between right and wrong. He had less of that knowledge after than before his fall. In the third place, “good and evil” may be taken in a physical sense, for happiness and misery. Eating of the forbidden tree was to determine the question of Adam’s being happy or miserable. It led to an experimental knowledge of the difference. God knew the nature and effects of evil from his omniscience. Adam could know them only from experience, and that knowledge he gained when he sinned. Whichever of these particular interpretations be adopted, they all are included in the general statement that the tree of knowledge gave Adam a knowledge which he had not before; he came to an experimental knowledge of the difference between good and evil.”
Systematic Theology
Jesus is the tree of life
In Proverbs, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. So by extension, the tree was there as a marker for your fear of the Lord. By not fearing the Lord, you disobey his commands. Which in turn brings about the foolish path that leads to death. A few jumps but the connections are sound.
Not only two, but many
Lorna Aniwasal Kihel Borbon
Mankind is the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil and by their spirit is the fruit of the tree (Good or Evil) and the seed within the fruit is their soul (light or darkness) that must die to the fruit of the flesh in the hope of new life.
The Tree of Life.
God is the whole Tree and the Spirit of God is the Fruit of the Tree and the seed within the fruit is Christ, who must die to Himself in the order of new life.
[…] Eden has two trees, the tree of knowledge of good… […]
All #ourCOG News 5.0
Comments