What Is the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in Genesis 3?
1) Direct Answer
- The tree of life is Christ—God’s own Life and Word offered to man.
- The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is Satan’s perverted wisdom, offered through the serpent, mixing truth with error and bringing death. It was not an apple tree; it was a channel of union with unbelief that produced a corrupt seed.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- Genesis 2:9 places both trees “in the midst” of the garden, making them central to man’s choice.
- Genesis 2:17 says, “in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” After partaking, death set in (Genesis 3:19; Romans 5:12).
- Genesis 3:1-6 shows the serpent ministering a message contrary to God’s Word, and Eve receiving it. 2 Corinthians 11:3 confirms, “the serpent beguiled Eve.”
- Genesis 3:7 says “they knew that they were naked” and covered their loins, showing moral shame, not a stomach issue from fruit.
- Genesis 3:15 declares enmity between two seeds: the woman’s Seed and the serpent’s seed. That speaks of a real lineage. 1 John 3:12 says, “Cain was of that wicked one,” revealing the serpent’s line through unbelief.
- Genesis 3:14 curses the serpent “upon thy belly,” showing a creature brought down—once upright, now degraded.
- The tree of life points to Christ: “In Him was life” (John 1:4). He said, “I am the life” (John 14:6), “I am the living bread” (John 6:51). Overcomers are promised to eat of the tree of life (Revelation 2:7), and in the New Jerusalem it appears again (Revelation 22:2). God barred the way to it (Genesis 3:24), so fallen man wouldn’t live forever in sin. Access opens again by redemption.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- Literal fruit cannot give a conscience of good and evil, nor does it make one ashamed of nakedness. But receiving a wrong word and entering a wrong union brings moral shame and death.
- God speaks of “seed” in Genesis 3:15. Fruit doesn’t beget a lineage; reproduction does. That’s why sorrow in conception and childbirth was multiplied (Genesis 3:16). The issue touched the womb and the life stream.
- If Adam and Eve had then taken the tree of life, they would have lived forever in a fallen state. Therefore the tree of life is eternal life in Christ; the other tree brought death by mixing good and evil—religion without revelation, truth mingled with a lie.
4) Reinforcing Statement
Now notice: to “eat” is to receive and become one with what you take in. Receiving Christ, the Word and Spirit, is partaking of the tree of life today; receiving the serpent’s reasoning is partaking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Stay with the pure Word, and you live. Mix it, and you die.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Turn on the Light
64-0125 §12
No life can come outside of light. Life produces... Light produces life. There can be no life outside of light, natural or spiritual. There must be... And only light can come by the Word of God. God's Word is the life when it's manifested. It's just a seed laying here, as God planted all the seeds. Our bodies was on the earth before the world ... well, before there was any light here, any life here or anything. The calcium, potash, petroleum, cosmic light, whatever, it was here---was here when God created the earth...
Earnestly contending for the faith once delivered
53-0614A §34
Now, here's the tree of death. I have my idea of what it was, you can have yours. But anyhow, that whenever they taken this tree, they were going to die. But if they ever taken this Tree, they were going to live. So, when they'd taken the tree of death, that separated them from God, and He put an Angel around that Tree to keep them from taking it. Because the very time that they'd taken of that Tree, they would live forever, even knowing good from evil. Is that right? All right. Then notice. That tree was the woman...
God's Provided Way
53-1201 §13
Now, in the garden of Eden there were two trees. One of them was the tree of knowledge, one was the Tree of Life. And men can never know God by knowledge. So, no matter how well you get educated, how smart your pastor is, how many degrees he's taken, you can't ... God is not known by education, neither is He known by scientific research. The only way God is known is by faith. No matter if you don't know the difference between split beans and coffee, if you absolutely, by faith, accept God it's bound to be an act of...
Condemnation by Representation
60-1113 §81
You're right back to two trees. One of them was the tree of knowledge and the other one was the tree of life. Now, do you want to go the scientific way of hybreeding? Look where you get. What kind of a mess has man got himself into with this hybreeding? What kind of a mess has he got himself into with his own knowledge? Instead of just being a child, humbly and depending on God, he is trying to take science and split an atom. Look what a mess he is in right now. God just lets him destroy himself, that's all. Man de...
God's covenant with Abraham and his seed
56-0223 §8
Now, in the garden of Eden there were two trees. One of them, say, on the right side, was the tree of life; on the left side was the tree of knowledge. And as long as man eats from the tree of life, which is faith, he lives. But the first bite he took off the tree of knowledge, he separated himself from his fellowship with God. Do you see it? And notice then, in separating himself, he continually bites off of that tree, continually eating from that tree. Then he's brought it in to his ... try to mix that knowledge...