In the last couple of months, I have come across people asserting that in Eden, Adam and Eve regularly partook of the tree of life prior to eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. One of the proponents is an individual who is very well known in charismatic circles. The view is simply not tenable, before getting into why, I will first look at the tree of life throughout scripture. I will then briefly show what it represents to us now. First the scriptures.
8 The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:8–9 (NKJV)
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” – 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3:22–24 (NKJV)
18 She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, And happy are all who retain her. Proverbs 3:18 (NKJV) NOTE this is a reference to the importance of wisdom
30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, And he who wins souls is wise. Proverbs 11:30 (NKJV)
12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12 (NKJV)
4 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, But perverseness in it breaks the spirit. Proverbs 15:4 (NKJV)
7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” Revelation 2:7 (NKJV)
2 In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:2 (NKJV)
14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. Revelation 22:14 (NKJV)
In the Old Testament (OT) references the word for life in the tree of life is chay in each case but it is also the word used when it says God breathed into Adam the breath of life. Thus, the life in the tree is not qualitatively different than the life Adam had already received at his creation. It is the Hebrew word that refers to life or living things. It is also the word used to refer to all living things in general in Genesis 9:3 and we see it on David’s lips when he wanted to battle Goliath. In 1 Samuel 17:26 David described Yahweh as the ‘living God’ (chay Elohim). We can then see that the choice of what tree to eat from wasn’t about having life/chay as that was something that Adam and Eve already possessed.
In the OT life is life. What was in the tree was in the animals and in people. Yet the tree of life is seen as a source of something more. We see from Adam and Eve being barred access to it that it would have also imparted immortality and left them forever in a sinful state had they partaken of it (Genesis 3:22-24). To truly understand the importance of the tree of life we need to move forward to the New Testament (NT).
Paul makes an important distinction between different types of life in 1 Corinthians.
45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 1 Corinthians 15:45 (NKJV)
The distinction here is between soulish and spiritual life. To understand this, we need to briefly move back to Genesis 2:7. It is the breath of life (chay) that Yahweh releases into Adam and Adam is then referred to as a living (chay) being (Hebrew nephesh, soul). Paul’s point is that Adam became a soulish being at his creation but we become spiritual beings at the new birth.
This spiritual life is what the tree of life would have conferred to Adam and Eve had they partaken of the tree of life. Something would have been added to their essence that would have brought about an internal change. We can see that eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil did bring about change, sin and destruction for all of creation. The loss of access to the tree of life after their sin, the spiritual versus the soulish life and the problem of living forever in a fallen state tells us that Adam and Eve only ate from one tree.
More to come.
