The Forest for the Trees

It wasn’t the Tree of Life that Adam and Eve ate fruit from in the Garden of Eden. Did you know that? I didn’t. Like many people, I was told Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Life and were expelled from the Garden of Eden as punishment. I accepted the tale, but it didn’t seem logical to me – it sounded more like a bedtime story than a lesson on how to live your life. When I was told a different version I decided to find out which was true, and I learned what the biblical account really said.
It might seem to border on controversy, or perhaps even blasphemy to some minds, but the facts speak for themselves. Not only did Adam and Eve never eat from the Tree of Life, but by taking a closer look at the account itself, even more revelations awaited notice.

The first discovery happened when I read Genesis 2:9. That scripture describes more than one tree of significance in the middle of the Garden of Eden. It lists the Tree of Life as well as The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad. This was an amazing discovery. No one had ever pointed out to me that there were two trees in the account. Every version of the tale I heard listed one tree, exclusively. This alone warranted a closer look.
Genesis 2:16-17 lists the restriction put down by God. He told them they could eat from any tree in the Garden except for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad. This was another discovery. He gave no restriction at all against the Tree of Life. Even after reading the account through several times to make certain, there is no restriction listed against the Tree of Life. Once again, this differed from all the versions of the account that I had heard. Adam and Eve were permitted to eat from the fruit of the Tree of Life at any given time.
Now, the tempting of Eve appeared to be pretty much what I came to expect. Using a serpent as a ventriloquist’s dummy, the Devil flat-out lied to Eve. In Genesis 2:17, God told both her and Adam that if they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad, they would die. The Devil said God was the one lying, that Eve would not die from eating the fruit. In fact, he said God was holding something back from her, and if she ate the fruit she would be like God, knowing good and bad. That was how I understood the account, so it wasn’t really surprising.
However, the next surprise came in Genesis 3:22-24. This was a real eye opener. Addressing His son and the angels in heaven, God explained His next action. He took the first human pair out of the Garden of Eden not out of punishment, but out of restriction. Their eviction was meant specifically to keep them from eating from the Tree of Life. This made more sense to me, especially after reading Genesis 3:16-18. That scripture lists the discipline God bestowed for their disobedience. We know God uses justice and wisdom in his discipline, so what would be the point in punishing Adam and Eve a second time with expulsion? There had to be a different reason – and there was. Specifically, Genesis 3:22 says the ousting was ‘in order that they may not eat from the Tree of Life and live forever.’ Not only is this logical and just, but it’s noteworthy because of the ramifications. If Adam and Eve had already eaten from the Tree of Life, they would already be living forever. So, did they indeed eat from the Tree of Life earlier?   
It doesn’t seem that way. Let’s go back and take another look at Eve’s reply to the serpent. In Genesis 3:2-3 Eve told the serpent they ‘could eat from any tree in the garden, but as for the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, they must not eat from it so they do not die.’ Keep in mind that the account already identified two trees of significance in the middle of the garden. However, Eve specified a single tree. She did not differentiate the Tree of Life from the Tree of the Knowledge of good and bad. She merely called it the tree in the middle of the Garden, as if only one of the two offered fruit to eat. It’s also of note that The Devil did not tempt her with the fruit of the Tree of Life first, to ensure she’d live forever, and then tempt her with fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad. The logical conclusion is that fruit from the Tree of Life was not yet available.
However, God took them out of the garden so that they would not eat from the Tree of Life. Is there a contradiction here? No. Again, the logical conclusion is that the tree of life did not yet have fruit to offer, but eventually would. Therefore God expelled them from the Garden of Eden before they could partake of that fruit. He was showing wisdom and justice at the same time by making this decision. Too bad I wasn’t shown this earlier in my life; I might have made different decisions based on this principle of action and consequences.

So now I was armed with an understanding of the biblical record. Adam and Eve did not eat from the Tree of Life; they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad, in direct violation of God’s command. Of course, these revelations made me wonder how accurate all the other Bible tales I’d been told actually were. But with 66 books, 40 writing assistants, and countless tales and prophecies, there are a whole lot of trees in that forest to go through.

    --End.