Genesis 2:9, How many trees in the Garden of Eden?

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.

//Lots of trees in the garden, but two were special, the two that were planted in the middle of the garden … or was it just a single tree? God refers to only one as he instructs Adam:

And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” –Genesis 2:16-17

Later, the serpent tempts Eve, asking her what she is allowed to eat. She mentions only the one “in the middle of the garden”:

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'” –Genesis 3:2-3

Could the two trees have been one and the same? When Revelation is penned promising a new Eden, why is there only one great tree there? Is the tree of life also the tree of knowledge? After all, what did Adam and Eve learn to do with their new knowledge? They made life.

Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. –Genesis 4:1

6 Comments

  1. The tree? Google First Scandal. When you get there, go to the top of the page and click on “Can you explain…” Please note: this website you reach will be deleted on November 1, 2012.

  2. Though one could also argue that they ‘made death’. Not only did they sign their death warrant by eating the fruit, but almost as soon as they ate, God appeared with the skin of a dead animal. This marker of death would have been a suitable symbol of the darker post-Eden world to come. Cain, the first-born of this new age, was of course the world’s first recorded murderer, and his progeny would know war, famine, oppression and widespread species extinction.

    If that’s all the work of the Tree of Life, then it’s difficult to see why it’s spoken so fondly of in Revelation.

    • Because without the real tree with real consequences, there would be no possibility of real choice. Without the real choice there would be no possibility of real relationship with God, and thus true love. It would all be a play by unwilling machines.

  3. Erijery Mateta

    Twelve trees divided into three at four cardinal points.

  4. Lane Cole

    Trees in the garden are metaphors and not literal, physical trees, but different areas of teaching and learning. Mankind has the potential to be like God b/c Adam and the Woman were in the image and likeness of God. She was deceived, but he wasn’t, that’s why the curse is on him

  5. Cassisa, cinnamon, myrrh, calamus/cannabis are the plants that make up the holy anointing oil, also known as the chrism, also known as the tree of knowledge. And finally the 5th and final tree of eden, tada grape, the tree of life..

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