Subject: Genesis 3:1-7 |
Bible Note: Greetings Nolan: You said: Genesis 3:1-7 is referring to a tangible fruit on a tree, not a symbolic fruit of fornication. It had to be tangible so that she could be ordered not to "touch" it (v.3), or eat it (v.3,6). But they did eat of the fruit and their eyes were opened. My reply: The spiritual realities of these things are real, more real than the natural. The fruit of GODS Spirit is love, joy, peace......The fruit of unbelief(sin) is envy, strife, fornication...... Nolan: If the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were symbolic, then how do explain the tree of Life in Genesis 2:9 and Revelation 22:2,14. I believe that these are literal trees. If that is so, then Adam and Eve ate of "literal" fruit as well! Paul: Jesus Christ the only begotten of GOD is the tree of life, and the man of sin is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Embracing what either brings to you will bear fruit in one life. Nothing can grow in us but that we accept it, either by desire(unforgivable), or through deception(power of the devil which Jesus destroyed). We will grow and be formed in Jesus, or in the spirit of this world. So I don't believe it was an apple or such, but rather a specific act meant to bring Eve and Adasm into sin. Nolan: Moreover, it was a "serpent" that deceived Eve (2 Cor. 11:3), not a man. Paul: creatures are often used of GOD to portray the position of a man. Our Lord is not a lion, yet He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. The fact is that all man is apart from GOD is a beast(like the one in Revelation). The serpent portrays the agency of a man in service to the devil(more subtile than any creature). Jesus identified the pharisees as snakes. Nolan: And the NT does not allude to any possibility other than the fact that Adam and Eve were deceived by eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (1 Tim. 2:13,14). Adam and Eve were the ONLY TWO HUMANS on earth at the time of the Garden of Eden. Paul: It says first Adam, then Eve, but as to what happened after the disobedience, well we can think on it. I'm seeing that many children were born of fornication, and that this was the specific act which Eve partook of, and brought to Adam. GOD kept a pure lineage for His seed, but the rest fell into mixture, and the bearing of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Look at matthew 13:37-43 in regards to this, as Jesus explains the two sowers to His disciples. GOD bless us all in our desire to know and please Him, Paul |