the tree in the garden of Eden?

Question

can someone explain to me what the purpose of this tree was ?

I know it was forbidden to eat from it , I am not asking about that
but why was it there in the first place ?

thank you xx

Answer 1

it was all set up, so that Eve would eat that fruit

Answer 2

It existed for the opportunity that it facilitated.

There was no real curse or so-called sin involved; this is only a misinterpretation.

When the bible speaks of partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you are reading what is called a metaphor. Knowledge of good and evil is a metaphoric reference to judgment. When you judge something you attempt to determine if it is acceptable or not. In effect you are deciding if it is good or evil from your point of view.

Once we were just like the animals and recognized that everything in the garden that God had given us was good. At some point we started to judge some thing as being better than others are. This set up a situation where something’s were more appealing to us than others. We started wishing for these things and were no longer happy with some of the other things in the garden.

This is what is referred to as the fall of man, or separation from God. Some references actually call this the detour into insanity. This self-induced separation from the knowledge of the perfection of god’s gifts to us was never shared by the animals. They were too smart to fall for this silly idea and were not fooled by the ideas of good and evil. For this reason they exist along side of us still experiencing the perfection of the garden. While we have excluded ourselves with our ideas of judgment. This is a truly fascinating subject that has many interesting facets. Including how to reverse the process and return to the original state. If you feel the need to discuss it further send an email.

Love and blessings.
don

Answer 3

It was the tree of knowledge.

It's a methaphore to indicate that with the acquisition of knowledge man lost his innocence and started to sin.

The story of the eating of the forbidden fruit of knowledge is found in different renderings in other religions or mythologies like in the Greek Mythology for example with the story of the titan Prometheus who stole a bolt of lightening (fire)from Zeus to give it to man.

For this he was chained to mount Caucasus and had an eagle devouring his liver everyday that would grow back every night.

Eventually Prometheus was freed by Hercules.

The acquisition fo knwoledge by way of eating the fruit or by the gift of the fire is seen as the acquisition of power since knowledge is power, but power also corrupts and is abused and with corruption and abuse comes sin.

As for why the tree was put there in the first place the reason dipends from different speculations and interptretations.

Though this said I personally believe that it' s just a a part of the story of the creation of man and a warning that knowledge can be dangerous. Nowadays with nuclear power and genetics we know that it is.

Answer 4

"Trees are often symbolic for people or angels. In this instance the tree is Satan in an angelic and handsome form. The whole 'apple' story is an allegory or tale that covers up the actual sexual encounter that happened."
http://www.hiddencodes.com/cain.htm

I have heard that the tree was really Satan. And when she "ate" of this tree, she had sex with him. This explains the words "desire" and "pleasing", and why, after they "ate" of it, they put leaves over their privates. If it were indeed a literal fruit, wouldn't they put leaves over theri mouths? It also says she can't even touch the fruit. When God asks what happened, she says "And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. " (gen 3:13) This word beguiled in Hebrew means wholly seduced. Anyone else think it's weird?
Supposedly, Abel and Cain were twins by different fathers. It is possible, look here.
http://www.dnacenter.com/media/twins-different-fathers.html

Abel was Adam's son, and Cain was Satan's. There are different verses supporting this, as in the old hebrew bible which says Eve gave birth to Cain and "continued in labor" with Abel. Meaning, she had twins, right? Also, the two boys gave offerings at the same time, when Cain was jealous. This means the boys were the same age. Twins?

I don't know, just what I've heard. Makes you think about it twice though! We may never know.

Answer 5

I think Adam, Eve and the Apple Tree story are a metaphor. I don't think they were the first couple and probably they were not alone. I believe they were used by God in the Scriptures to be a symbol of the very beginning of human race. The tree is a symbol of sex and procreation, however they did it (sex) too early, they disobeyed God. God then realized that the flesh is weaker than the spirit, as Inteleyes said previously.

Peace!

Answer 6

It was there to give A&E the choice [or FREE WILL] to OBEY, or NOT OBEY God's command to them, perhaps to retain Man's INNOCENCE and since it was not yet the time to have such knowledge*, and continue to live forever with the presence of the Tree of Life.

People seem to forget that the Angels were created before Man was, and both the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life were already available to them. Certain Angels were assigned to become "Watchers" of Man in Eden but soon LUSTED with womankind. And thus, they became the "Fallen Angels" who were banished from Heaven forever.

This explains how the Tempter/Serpent happened to be in the garden of Eden.

Peace be with you.

Answer 7

The tree of knowledge was a symbol, and the story is a fairytale story of the origins of mankind. Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree and gained knowledge, but lost innocence and perfection and unity with god. Just as Prometheus stole fire (ie knowledge) and lost his freedom. These stories are tales of enchamtment, of the world working in mysterious ways, but their psychological function was to explain to our ancestors (the ancients) the paradox of being able to conjure up anything we want in our large Homo Sapien brains, while being constrained by physical reality and finite life. In short, these stories explain our mortality.

Answer 8

I think the tree was there as a test. God knew that this would happen, and I believe this was part of the plan from the beginning. I am sure most Christians would disagree with me on this. But it took creation of man, his fall, and then Jesus to atone for this (the rebellious revolt of 1/3 of the angels following Lucifer).

Answer 9

The garden of Eden story was plagiarized from older tales found on the Sumerian tablets, about the Anannaki in that area mining gold. In the original stories, "eve" was male and the "snake" an Anannaki trying to help the inhabitants of that area escape enslavement. The tales were just a tad twisted along the way, eh?

If you truly want to understand the tale and its origins, read some of the books by Zecharia Sitchin. He's studied them well.

Answer 10

I thought it was for God to eat from... I'm gonna have to recheck the Bible on this one.

Edit: Exodus 2:9 "And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil."

So I suppose the tree was either pleasant to look at or good for food.

Or, perhaps, it was simply a vehicle to move the story forward. Without thee tree of knowledge, there's no original sin, and the rest of the Bible would be pretty pointless.

Answer 11

The Tree was there to be eaten, just not at the time that Adom and Chava [Adam and Eve] did eat it. They were supposed to wait until the Sabbath started [on the evening which was just an hour away] Adan eat the Fruit at the Sabbath Feast that takes place when the Sabbath starts. [It may be a little confusing to gentiles, but Jewish days do not start at midnight, they start at sundown and last to the next sundown, so the first part of the Jewish day is evening and the first meal eaten on the Sabbath is dinner.] That was the one Commandment they had that they failed to obey. If they had obeyed and waited until the Sabbath started and eaten the Fruit when they were supposed to, The World To Come [Olam Habah] would have started and we would not have needed almost 6000 years to clean up the mess.