Trees of Eden

by thebiggestlie 19 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  lovelylil

  Leolaia reminded me about the term "tree of life" in Proverbs.

  I love reading the "pearls of wisdom" in this book. And I wanted to share one view about proverbs and the term "tree of life";

  The writer of Proverbs used the tree of life in mentioned in the garden of eden, probably because of the marvelous nature of that tree, as a symbol to teach us four wonderful truths;

  1. True Wisdom is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her - proverbs 3:18

  2. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life - proverbs 11:30

  3. A longing (hope) fulfilled, it is a tree of life - proverbs 13:12

  4. A wholesome tongue is a tree of life - proverbs 15:4

  What is this all telling us? That we become like "trees" (of life) ourselves through growing in true wisdom, living a righteous life, offering hope to the lost in our midst and using our (God given) abilities of communication graciously and meaningfully to all those we meet. Peace, Lilly
• 

  lighthouse19something

  The tree of knowledge meant desire to be independent from God, man decided for himself to rebel. The tree of life represented God's blessing of extended life. It also was a type and shadow of Christ- with him being the staff of life, the root of Jesse etc
• 

  lighthouse19something

  The tree of knowledge meant desire to be independent from God, man decided for himself to rebel. The tree of life represented God's blessing of extended life. It also was a type and shadow of Christ- with him being the staff of life, the root of Jesse etc
• 

  RAF
• 

  RAF

  ... ...
• 

  AllAlongTheWatchtower

  As a child, both the story of the garden with it's two trees, and the story of the tower of Babel, troubled me. In both stories, the underlying message seems to be 'stay stupid, or I [god] will hurt you'. In the account of the two trees, Adam and Eve are told 'you may eat of the fruit of all the other trees, but not of the tree of knowledge'. They ate of the fruit anyway, and their punishment was being driven away, and ultimately, according to the bible, death.

  Then later in the story of the tower, god is worried that men are becoming too smart again. To keep them from learning, he confounds their languages, and scatters them. Different story, same theme. If you learn too much, god punishes you. Why? Even back then, did those responsible for theistic beliefs have a need to control people, and teach them parables that would make them fear questioning the teachings?

  If I were an omniscient 'God', it seems to me that dealing with mortals all the time would be equivalent to being an adult hanging out with children. It might be amusing and gratifying on one level, but what kind of intellectual conversation could you have? To my way of thinking, god should have handed out fruit from the tree of knowledge like candy, just to have some interesting people about himself.
• 

  abbagail

  Ever hear the saying, "So and so has just enough knowledge to make them dangerous"? (The Mac Group used to say that about my father and his "knowledge" about his Mac computer, lol).
  
  My point is that God didn't allow "unlimited access" of the Tree of Knowledge of GOOD AND EVIL because He never meant for his human creation to come to know the EVIL SIDE. He himself can control evil, but He did not give humans the ability to do so. But once they DID (by partaking of its fruit), now they had enough knowledge to make them "dangerous" (so to speak) in their now-less-than-perfect condition. And they have used their dysfunctional selves with just-enough-knowledge-to-be-dangerous to bring us to where we are today, with all of the horrific descriptions Mouthy provided (good job there Mouthy), and there are more "evil inventions" we have not even become aware of yet... but we will...
  
  /ag
• 

  TopHat

  My question has always been: Why put the tree of "Good and Evil" in the garden in the first place?? AND didn't Adam and Eve already HAVE everlasting life within themself? They didn't need a tree of life until God took everlasting life away from them.
• 

  found-my-way

  My question has always been: Why put the tree of "Good and Evil" in the garden in the first place?? AND didn't Adam and Eve already HAVE everlasting life within themself? They didn't need a tree of life until God took everlasting life away from them.

  Excellent point, TopHat. If What kind of God creates a tree that contains EVIL? (Did Satan put the evil into the tree? lol) And yes, according to the Bible, He created Adam and Eve perfect with the ability to live forever...perhaps the tree of life was the tree that would make them immortal? (just a thought) If God is all powerful, He should of wiped out Satan from the get go, (and no, the argument that his angelic sons were looking on doesn't hold water, for God could of erased the angel's memory of Satan, thereby removing Satan from the scene to be able to tempt his new children on earth.) Nothing is impossible with Him, right? So why did he let Satan tempt them in the first place? If mankind remained in their pure state without anything evil or wicked to influence them, and no knowledge of anything wicked, there would be no pain and suffering, no pollution, just a simplistic way of life...yet I wonder if we were given the ability to use 100% of our brains, which would take a long long time to develop correct? what abilities we could achieve? the ability to teleport, to be telepathic, to move things with our minds only, perhaps we would achieve immortality at that point when we reached 100% use of our brain, and then we would no longer be dependent on food, and would therefore not be polluting the earth with our waste, from the biological process of digestion. We would be able to think up ways to travel without polluting our eathly home, and eventually figure out how to travel through space, and perhaps even time.
• 

  unbaptized

  Hello,

  This is a interesting topic and I wanted to give you some of my thoughts on the subject. I believe the trees mentioned in the Holy Bible were literal trees that symbolized Jehovah's authority and right to rule mankind. The tree of knowledge that was in the garden of eden symbolized God's right to rule us. When Adam and Eve chose to eat from this tree they basically wanted to know what was right and wrong for themselves and not trust God's direction. Also they wanted to be like God, having the power to decide what's best for them. It's funny because the world of mankind is exactly like that today! They're deciding for themselves what's good and what's bad, this is what the first humans chose over life.

  Second, the tree of life that was in the garden of eden, it also was a literal tree, but symbolized the gift of eternal life that God wanted to bless Adam, Eve and their offspring with. It was of no consequence for Jehovah to reveal to his creations the second tree because they were already enjoying a perfect life free from sin. They may have eaten from that tree for years without knowing what the tree symbolized. Jehovah wanted them to have life and have it more abundantly. But he did warn them about the tree of knowledge and what the consequences was when eating from that tree.

  It seems that today we are experiencing the same thing as in the garden of eden, but on a grand scale worldwide. Man chooses fleshly knowledge over spiritual knowledge, man chooses material wealth over spiritual wealth, man choosing death over life, man chooses the love of money over the love of his brother, some choose the love of the flesh over the love of God. Sometimes we keep looking and the answers are always right there in our face.

  Thanks for letting me comment!!!