In Genesis 2, after God creates everything he begins to give all of his creation life. He began with blowing the breath of life into man to take care of the Garden of Eden. In the center of this garden he puts the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. So as the tender of the garden, Man’s attention will naturally be drawn towards the center. The author of Genesis wanted to use the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil to symbolize the (everlasting) life it could take away from Adam if he ate of it. Eating the fruit on the true would open up Adam and Eve’s eyes to what evil was, rather than how blindly they could only see the good from Yahweh. Yahweh’s first command to Adam as the garden keeper was “You are free to eat of all the trees in the garden. But of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you are not to eat; for, the day you eat of that, you are doomed to die.”1 As you keep reading in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve do eat of the fruit after being tempted by the snake, and do not die. But the author didn’t mean that they would literally get sick and die- but that they would be subjected to the death of the flesh that Yahweh curses upon them further along in the chapter (Gn 3:14-19) The snake argues with Eve about whether they will actually die (Gn 3:4-5), which adds further significance to this symbol. Certainly Man won’t be able to live the same afterwards, because their eyes will be opened. From Yahweh’s point of view, that is essentially a death. He says, “…you return to the ground, as you were taken from it. For dust you are and to dust you shall return.” (Gn 3:19) So the eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil symbolizes the death of the flesh that God curses Man too. Eating the fruit gave Adam and Eve the ability to recognize the difference between what is good and evil, rather than only knowing what good was. That good is directly from God, but the evil came from the snake. Understanding what evil was, leads to temptation to do the evil things, which lead to our death. Eating of the fruit (of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) opened the doors to death of mankind through the curst from Yahweh.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
It was Satan’s persuasive words that made Eve succumb and eat the forbidden fruit. He described the fruit as the cure of all and the divine fruit. He then tell her, the fruit will feed both her body and mind. He also states that it is not true that they Eve will not die from eating the fruit because he ate the fruit and is still alive.…
- 67 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
Adam and Eve is a biblical story based mainly about curiosity, challenges, and forbidden knowledge. Adam and Eve were strictly given instructions to not eat from the fruited tree. However, "the serpent" cons Eve into eating from it Eve decided to consume the forbidden fruit, which was disobeying God’s orders. She also…
- 688 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
In Genesis, the story of Adam and Eve is set in the Garden of Eden. In the garden there was no sin, suffering or pain. Everyone was happy and had everything they wanted. The one thing God told Adam and Eve was to stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and to not eat the fruit from that tree, yet that was too much to ask. “When the woman saw the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he also ate it” (Genesis 3:6). This sin had grave consequences such as “the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig-leaves together and made coverings for themselves” (Genesis 3:7). Gene’s sin had similar results from when he shook the tree and Finny fell, his life changed largely. The impact of his actions struck him extremely hard and at once he became ashamed and embarrassed of what he did, just as Adam and Eve were of their nakedness so they…
- 817 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
In Genesis 3:16-20 God gives separate consequences to man and woman. For women God increased pain during child birth and also that women cannot have power over their husbands. This also tells us that women will desire to be in a man’s position but will never acquire it because Eve made the decision of deceiving Adam into eating the apple. For man God cursed the ground from which he will have to work very hard to gain food. God also cursed the ground with weeds and thorns which kill other plants and make it even harder to grow food. God used a sense of irony with the last curse for man. He first explained that man came from the ground and that man will have to work the ground his whole life to keep him and his family alive until the man dies returning to the ground.…
- 556 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Myth 1: Eve ate the fruit of the tree of life so God cursed her with sorrow and conception and in her sorrow shall she bring forth children; and thy desire be her husband.…
- 924 Words
- 4 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
After Adam and Eve ate the fruits that God had forbidden them from eating, God declared that their relationship with the serpent was over and that they will be enemies of one another. where Eve brings evil to human beings for accepting what the Serpent had said to her.…
- 303 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
The creator, Yahweh made the heavens and the earth. It is said that Yahweh took dust from the moist land and shapes it into the shape of man. He breathes the breath of life into man and he comes to life. Yahweh is the creator of all things from the Garden of Eden, to the rivers that flow from the four corners of the world. He is also the creator of the Garden of Eden, the tree of life, and the tree knowledge of good/evil. One day after watching man, he decides that man should have a help-mate. He causes man to fall into a deep sleep and remove one of his ribs, creating woman. The man was Adam (earth or clay) and the woman name was Eve (life). The myth goes on to state how Adam and Eve eats the apple from the tree of knowledge after the serpent deceives them. In addition, eating the apple opens their eyes to the knowledge of good and evil. They are then ban from the Garden of Eden. Yahweh curses the serpent, Adam, and Eve. He places a half-human,…
- 1231 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
In all his glory the LORD God created put all the trees that are “pleasant to the sight and good for food.” (Gen. 2:9) in Eden; at the center was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and evil. He also created rivers that ran through the garden. Adam realized that he was put in the garden in order “to dress it and to keep it.” (Gen. 2:15)…
- 1472 Words
- 3 Pages
Better Essays -
Instead the serpent gets to Eve because he is there to speak to her, to convince her that it is actually okay to eat the apple. But, because he only speaks to them humans in a evening breeze after God had watched her fall into the Devil’s trap. Eve so innocent with no knowledge of the world which is the same as Telemachus a boy with no knowledge of his father being alive but instead she fends for herself falling into the dirty trap. God is known as the all knowing, God someone who oversaw the creation of the world, or what believers think created the world. Without the visual aspect they pray to what they hope is there, people will beg for help for forgiveness. But, do they know if it is coming, do they know that on judgement day this God will welcome them with open arms, shut the gate, or live in oblivion. With this God only being heard by certain people most branches of religion live on the fact that this ancient book is a true story of their God but whose to say it is not just another great story with no real bearings.…
- 582 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The Tree of Knowledge is a sacred object found in the Garden of Eden. The Tree of Knowledge is a reminder is a reminder still used in the contemporary world to not be fooled by evil. In Christian mythology, eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil was the initial sin committed by Adam and Eve that became known later as the fall of man, Adam and Eve died spiritually immediately following eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, their sin separated them from God.…
- 670 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Write 2-3 sentences explaining how restoration and redemption are significant for our purpose as individuals and for mankind in general. Mankind wants to live the eternal life in Heaven; no one wants to live in hell.…
- 960 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
In the Book of Genesis, God establishes the native inhabitants of the Garden of Eden as herbivores by stating “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food” (Genesis 1:30). Although God grants the Homo sapiens sovereignty of the animal sphere, he initially nourishes the human body with a fruitarian diet. Similarly, when the monster requests for Victor to create another member of his species, he describes the genesis of the homo sapiens’ inceptive nature by stating “I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite; acorns and berries afford me sufficient nourishment... the picture I present to you is peaceful and human” (Shelley 103). The correlation between the Garden of Eden’s plant-based ailment and the monster’s vegetarian diet conveys the proposition that the original inhabitants of human society rely on crops for sustenance. The monster and Eve’s herbivore diets prove vegetarianism to be the natural, primordial diet of humanity in a theological…
- 1644 Words
- 7 Pages
Good Essays -
Throughout the book of Genesis, the serpent has been portrayed as the evil entity several times. The most evident example of this is the story of the snake telling Eve to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. She, in turn gives the fruit to Adam who also consumes it. This poem is my representation of this famed story.…
- 261 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
"And the woman said to the serpent, from the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. That from the fruit of the tree is in middle of the garden,…
- 1553 Words
- 7 Pages
Powerful Essays -
The fall of Adam and Eve is probably one of the most famous capricious acts ever told in the Bible. Scholars and theologians have long since been puzzled by the fact that God, all-knowing and all-powerful, knew that Adam and Eve would sin yet He created them anyways. He knew that they would fall yet he bravely said, “Let us create man in our image”. To make matters worse, God not only created man but He also placed the forbidden tree right in their presence knowing full well that they would choose what the tree had to offer over what He had to offer. Yet, He didn't coerce or persuade them to choose Him, He simply sat back and allowed them to choose. This is one of the reasons why God created man even though He knew that they would sin. Everything that God creates is used to manifest His glory and His attributes. Creating man was no different. You see, God created man so that they could serve and worship Him but He only wants them to do so willingly in both spirit and in truth. He wants our love unconditionally, not out of fear or coercion. He wants us to freely love Him as much…
- 1370 Words
- 6 Pages
Good Essays