what happened to the garden of eden and the tree of life

Some exegetical notes, observations, and tentative conclusions:

i. Among all the trees in the Garden of Eden, God identified two special trees: of life, and of the knowledge of good and evil.

"And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and skilful for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the cognition of proficient and evil." (Genesis 2:9)

2. God allowed Adam to swallow from all the trees except the tree of the cognition of proficient and evil, warning him that death would consequence.

"The LORD God commanded the man, maxim, 'You may surely consume of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of skillful and evil you lot shall not eat, for in the twenty-four hours that you eat of it you shall surely dice.'" (Genesis 2:16-17)

three. Later on existence tempted by the serpent, Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and Adam did the same.

"And then when the woman saw that the tree was expert for food, and that information technology was a please to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate." (Genesis 3:6)

"And then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths." (Genesis iii:7)

4. Subsequently eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—in role to become "wise"—Adam at present possesses the noesis of good and evil like God does, too as knowledge of their nakedness.

". . . the woman saw that the tree . . . was to be desired to make one wise." (Genesis 3:6)

"And then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths." (Genesis 3:vii)

"Then the LORD God said, 'Behold, the man has get similar ane of the states in knowing practiced and evil.'" (Genesis 3:22b-24)

v. After Adam disobeyed God's command regarding the tree of the cognition of practiced and evil, God forbade Adam to eat from the tree of life lest he alive forever in that land; therefore God guards the tree.

"Then the Lord God said, '. . . Now, lest [the man] reach out his hand and take likewise of the tree of life and eat, and alive forever—" therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to piece of work the footing from which he was taken. He collection out the man, and at the e of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the fashion to the tree of life." (Genesis three:22b-24)

6. What does the Hebrew idiom "knowing/agreement/discerning good and evil" mean?

half-dozen.1. It is something God—and probably the angels—possess.

"And then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has go similar one of the states in knowing practiced and evil." (Genesis 3:22a)

"And your servant thought, 'The word of my lord the king will fix me at remainder,' for my lord the king is like the angel of God to discern good and evil. The Lord your God be with you lot!" (2 Samuel fourteen:17)

6.2. It is something that young children practise not possess.

And equally for your fiddling ones, who you lot said would get a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil , they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it." (Deuteronomy i:39)

"He shall swallow curds and beloved when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the proficient." (Isaiah 7:xv)

6.three. It is something that elderly people may no longer possess.

"I [=David] am this day eighty years one-time. Can I discern what is pleasant and what is non? . . ." (2 Samuel 19:35)

six.iv. It is something that God may grant.

"Requite your servant [=Solomon] therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern betwixt expert and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?" (ane Kings 3:9)

6.five. Perhaps information technology is best there to regard it at every bit something like "mature or contained wisdom, insight, discernment," with the tree representing an improper fashion to accomplish it.

Franz Delitzch:

The tree of knowledge was to lead man to the knowledge of practiced and evil; and, according to the divine intention, this was to be attained through his not eating of its fruit. This end was to be accomplished, not but by his discerning in the limit imposed past the prohibition the difference between that which accorded with the volition of God and that which opposed it, simply also past his coming eventually, through obedience to the prohibition, to recognize the fact that all that is opposed to the will of God is an evil to exist avoided, and through voluntary resistance to such evil, to the total development of the freedom of choice originally imparted to him into the actual freedom of a deliberate and cocky-witting choice of adept. By obedience to the divine will he would have attained to a godlike noesis of skilful and evil, i.due east. to one in accordance with his ain likeness to God. He would have detected the evil in the approaching tempter; but instead of yielding to it, he would accept resisted information technology, and thus have fabricated good his own property caused with consciousness and of his won gratis-will, and in this way by proper self-decision would gradually accept advanced to the possession of the truest liberty. But every bit he failed to go along this divine appointed way, and ate the forbidden fruit in opposition to the command of God, the ability imparted past God to the fruit was manifested in a different manner. He learned the departure between good and evil from his own guilty experience, and by receiving the evil into his own soul, fell a victim to the threatened death. Thus through his ain fault the tree, which should have helped him to attain true freedom, brought cypher but a sham liberty of sin, and with it expiry, and that without whatsoever demoniacal power of destruction being conjured into the tree itself, or any fatal toxicant being hidden in its fruit.

C. John Collins agrees:

God intended that through this tree humans would come up to know good and evil: either from above, every bit masters of temptation, or from beneath, as slaves to sin.

7. In the book of Proverbs, the tree of life is used as imagery in conjunction with a wisdom and understanding, the fruit of righteousness, fulfilled desire, and a gentle tongue.

"She is a tree of life to those who lay agree of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed." (Proverbs 3:18)

"The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise." (Proverbs 11:30)

"Promise deferred makes the heart sick, simply a desire fulfilled is a tree of life." (Proverbs 13:12)

"A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in information technology breaks the spirit." (Proverbs xv:4)

8. Those in the new heavens and the new earth will enjoy the fruit of the tree of life for all of eternity.

"To the one who conquers I will grant to consume of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." (Revelation 2:7b)

"On either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each calendar month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." (Revelation 22:2)

"Blessed are those who wash their robes, and so that they may accept the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the metropolis by the gates." (Revelation 22:xiv)

"If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book." (Revelation 22:19)

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Source: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/the-tree-of-life-and-the-tree-of-the-knowledge-of-god-and-evil/

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