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.
But it wasn't so from the beginning
61-0411 §32
There was a tree in the garden of Eden called the tree of life. There was one called the tree of knowledge. When man left the tree of life, where he was eating to live forever... The first bite he took from the tree of knowledge, he separated himself from God and brought death to his soul. That's right. And ever since then, every time he bites off of that tree of knowledge he destroys himself. He bit off gunpowder---kills his brother, his comrade. He bit off automobile science. What does he do? Killed more than all...
The god of this evil age
65-0801M §60
Notice. The tree that Satan caused Eve to partake of was the tree of good and evil. It was a mixed tree. Now, look at the day we're living in. When he's calling out a bride, he's got a church that claims to be doing good when it's evil by denying the Word. A mixed tree. Oh, say, "They have great societies. They help this. And the Red Cross endorses it, and all the schools, they..." Looky here! Oh, but just deny one word; that's all you have to do to die, no matter how intellectual, how good it is. Jesus said, "A li...
I will restore
53-1110 §11
Watch these human beings. The first two mortals to come out of the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, they begot two sons. One, Ham or beg your pardon, one Cain, and one Abel. I can see all that great eternity face down, when the time come when they was taken from the Garden of Eden, drove out to shift for themselves. There was two boys, both from the same mother, same father. And then when they was... Both of them wanted to find favor with God. Now, I believe that the Angel guarded the Tree of Life. And that Tree of Li...
Church Ages, part 3: The Ephesian Church Age
60-1205 §109
They said, "Our fathers... We don't know you. We know you're a devil." Said, "Our fathers eat manna in the wilderness for the space of forty years." And Jesus said, "And they're every one dead." That right? "They're all dead. But I... [Oh!] I am the bread of life that come from God out of heaven. [A bread of life.] If a man eats this bread he shall never die." "Will this man give his body to eat?" they said. "Now, he's mad, sure enough." The bread of life was from the tree of life, where they was eating from the ga...
Lamb and Dove
60-0805 §74
In the garden of Eden there were two trees. How many knows that? One of them was the tree of life, and the other one was the tree of knowledge. And when man left the tree of life to eat the tree of knowledge, he always destroys himself, separates himself from God. So you'll never know God by knowledge; you've got to know Him by faith, just to believe it. It doesn't come by knowledge; it's faith, see. So every time we bite here... They bit off ... first bite separated his fellowship from his maker. Then he bit off g...