The Two Trees - My Genesis Ponderings

by cedars 190 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  james_woods

  Just as a side point - I always had a curious feeling about "the tree of life" as per the JW explanation.

  The "tree of life" in JW theology imparted essential immortality, but you had to keep eating from it forever to get the immortality.

  This would logically imply that the tree of life itself was immortal - so that Adam & Eve could eat from it forever, had they not been sent out of the garden with angels at the gates to guard it.

  However, JW teaching says that it was NOT immortal. They clearly teach that it was destroyed in the flood.

  There is also (for me) a rather illogical conclusion about JW Garden of Eden theology - the dichotomy between the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

  The tree of knowledge was a "eat from it JUST ONCE, and have knowledge of good and evil FOREVER". It's effect was permanent.

  The tree of life was the opposite - if you don't eat from it practically EVERY DAY, you will lose your life and DIE". It's effect wore off.

  It just always seemed to me that this contradiction was somehow illogical - as well, of course, of the seeming mortality of the tree of life.
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  cedars

  Thanks james_woods, that's essentially how I read the text too - i.e. the tree of life needed to be eaten regularly in order to impart immortality, whereas the knowledge tree could be eaten once and the eater would know good and bad. That is certainly what is implied in the Genesis account, especially from God's reaction to Adam and Eve's actions.

  Cedars
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  james_woods

  And Cedars - to take it to an even more unreasonable extreme, note this:

  Under JW teaching - NONE of the OTHER trees on earth EXCEPT for the Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge were killed by the flood!!! After all - Noah did not take any saplings on board the ark, according to the accounts...plants just sort of "came back" after the flood - except of course for those two trees.

  Such thinking suggests to me (as N.drew said) that this is just an imaginary picture to explain the human condition in primative terms.

  In that sense, there were neither TWO literal trees, nor ONE literal tree - but rather ZERO literal trees. Just an ancient myth.
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  cedars

  Yes James, it's nigh impossible to dissect the Genesis account without resorting to allegory.

  I have a book called "Creation or Evolution - Do We Have To Choose?" by Denis Alexander, and he explores the account more-or-less exlusively from an allegorical perspective, roping in human evolution etc. He notes that there were "others" around when Cain was exiled, and posits that this was a reference to the other homo sapien species around at the time who did not directly enjoy God's favor. I'm not saying I've settled on this theory, I'm just saying that there's a myriad of explanations - any one of which could be true, or not.

  Cedars
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  N.drew

  As BOTR just observed, you would think that with such an important portion of text that would set the tone for the whole bible as well as the future of humanity things would be made as clear as crystal. I find it telling that the reverse is true.

  With how the MIND works the account can not be made crystal clear. Heaven says "I see that Man will become extinct". OK? NOT OK.

  It's not OK. OK?
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  james_woods

  OK, N.drew.

  OK.

  (was that non-chalant enough?)
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  cedars

  N.drew, my Google Translator came up blank on that last sentence of yours, sorry!

  Cedars
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  N.drew

  One day man will know about the sky. They will observe that stars do die in the most alarming way. The people will say "will that happen to Sun?' And the scientist will say "to be sure it will happen".

  "you will positively die" says God Almighty.

  Satan says "you will not die"

  Now it has become a contest. Will Man die or will man not die?

  BTW without God to lead us humankind WILL die. That is what I agree on with atheists. Wink.
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  cedars

  Thanks N.drew, that's nice.

  Cedars
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  N.drew

  You're welcome

  But it is far far away from nice.

  I mean not you. Oops. I mean for mankind to lead mankind to the death is not nice. But you are!