The Two Trees - My Genesis Ponderings

by cedars 190 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  cedars

  Hi everyone

  I've just posted a new blog article to JWstruggle.com on the link below:

  http://www.jwstruggle.com/2012/03/the-two-trees-my-genesis-ponderings/

  The purpose behind the article is to explore my own doubts and long-standing confusion over the Genesis narrative - particularly the events surrounding Adam and Eve's expulsion from Eden, and the "two trees" (namely the "tree of life" and the "tree of the knowledge of good and bad").

  In my article I discuss my confusion over what the exact properties of the "tree of the knowledge of good and bad" may have been, and the fact that evidently by eating of the fruit Adam and Eve did not become sinful but more godlike. I ponder how this relates to the concept of inherited sin.

  Feel free fo read the article and give me your observations. If there's anything glaringly obvious that I've missed, then I would obviously appreciate hearing it.

  Warm regards,

  Cedars
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  james_woods

  Very interesting, Cedars.

  Ms. N.drew will probably be here in a moment - she has the strange theory that the two trees were the same: That is, there was only one tree.

  My theory is that if any of this story is literal reality, the Daedalus and Icarus really could fly.
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  Wizard of Oz

  Hi Cedars

  My personal understanding of this is as follows. We were as animals i.e. without conscience. Knowing the difference between right and wrong is to gain one. Therefore the lie isn't and Jehovah said as much before tossing us out to stop us eating from the tree of life.

  Genesis Ch3 v22-24

  HE then tested Abraham before commiting to sending His own son so that we may gain eternal life.

  I dont trust links so unfortuneately I have not read your blog
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  cedars

  Hello james_woods - yes I'm bracing myself for the onslaught from N.drew. However, if you're going to debate the matter, you might as well debate it based on what's actually written in the text rather than an assumption that the two trees were one and the same, which they clearly weren't because one was forbidden whereas the other wasn't. I look forward to hearing the explanations come in, as I'm sure they will! Perhaps one or more of them might put me out of my perpetual confusion over this issue...

  Cedars
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  cedars

  Hello Wizard of Oz - thanks, although it's a shame you don't trust the link because I explain how the concept of inherited sin is thrown into confusion by the events surrounding the eating of the fruit. Evidently it was not the fruit itself that made Eve sinful, so if that's the case, what was it? And how did we inherit it?

  Cedars
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  N.drew

  Oh brother.
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  cedars

  Forgive me N.drew, for I have sinned!

  Go easy on me!

  Cedars
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  Wizard of Oz

  Hi Cedars

  My personal understanding of this is as follows. We were as animals i.e. without conscience. Knowing the difference between right and wrong is to gain one. Therefore the lie isn't and Jehovah said as much before tossing us out to stop us eating from the tree of life.

  Genesis Ch3 v22-24

  HE then tested Abraham before commiting to sending His own son so that we may gain eternal life.

  I dont trust links so unfortuneately I have not read your blog
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  cedars

  Hello Wizard of Oz - yes, that's what you said a few moments ago. I'm still none the wiser.

  Cedars
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  james_woods

  Evidently it was not the fruit itself that made Eve sinful, so if that's the case, what was it?

  If you read the New Testament very carefully, and take it literally, it was not sinfullness on the part of Eve, it was stupidity. The stupidity of being a woman.

  To defend N.drew, to the best I can interpret her unique language - the act of gaining knowledge of good and bad was also the act of gaining human life (as we know it today). So, the two trees were the same in that sense - it gave Adam and Eve intelligent life - if not everlasting life.