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.
Preparation
53-1111 §17
In the Garden of Eden there were two trees, one was life, one was knowledge. Man left the Tree of Life to eat off the tree of knowledge. And the first bite he took he separated himself from God. And every time a man bites off of that tree of knowledge, he destroys himself. He bit off gun powder, killed his comrades. He bit off automobiles off the tree of knowledge, kills more people than all the wars. He's bit off himself a hydrogen bomb now. What's he going to do with that? Everything, he destroys himself by knowl...
The true and false vines
56-0311A §20
A very beautiful type of today. When the church is hungry, God wants His children fed with the bread of life, not with some theory, but with the bread of life. Who---or what---is this bread of life? Jesus said, "I am the bread of life that came from God out of heaven." Said, "Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness." Hebrews ... or, John 6, "They ate manna in the wilderness, and they're every one dead. But I am the bread of life that come from God out of heaven. If any man eats this bread, he shall never die." Or,...
Whatever He saith unto you, do it
54-0722 §12
In the Garden of Eden, there were two trees: one was knowledge and one was life. And as long as man eat off the tree of life, he had everlasting life. The first bite he took from the tree of knowledge, he separated his fellowship from God; and every time he takes a bite yet, he destroys himself. He bit off gun powder; look what that does. He bit off automobile off the tree of knowledge; kills more of his comrades than all the wars does. He's got a hydrogen bomb bit off now. I wonder what he's going to with that. Go...
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever
56-0426 §32
There was two trees in the garden of Eden. One of them was the tree of knowledge. One was a tree of life. As long as man eat from this tree he lived. But, when he left this tree and bit his first bite off there, he separated himself from his maker. And he's been biting on it ever since. And we've even brought it over and put it in church. You got to have so many degrees, or you have to say "Aaah-men" a certain way, or you can't get to the platform. You have to have all your papers and everything to show what creed...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 3:E-92
But what is the Tree Of Life? Well, first of all we would have to know what the tree itself stands for. In Numbers 24:6, as Balaam described Israel, he said they were "trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted." Trees throughout the Scriptures refer to persons, as in Psalms 1. Thus the Tree Of Life must be the Person of Life, and that is Jesus.