The Tree in the Midst of the Garden Meaning?
1) Direct Answer
It means the two great choices God set in the very center: the Tree of Life (Christ, God’s own Life and Word) and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Satan’s reasoning). In the “midst” of the garden stood life by the Word or death by unbelief.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- The Bible says there were two trees in the midst: “The tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9). Eve later refers to the forbidden one as “the tree which is in the midst of the garden” (Genesis 3:3).
- God’s command: “Of every tree… thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it” (Genesis 2:16–17). The issue was obedience to God’s Word.
- When they chose the wrong tree, “their eyes were opened,” shame entered, and death followed (Genesis 3:5–7; Romans 5:12).
- God then guarded the Tree of Life with cherubim and a flaming sword (Genesis 3:22–24), showing that life is now only by God’s appointed way.
- The Tree of Life is Christ. “In him was life” (John 1:4). He said, “I am the life” (John 14:6). Wisdom is called “a tree of life” (Proverbs 3:18), and Christ is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).
- Access to the Tree of Life is promised again to the overcomer: “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life” (Revelation 2:7), and it appears in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 22:2,14).
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- Now notice: it wasn’t an apple. Eating fruit doesn’t open spiritual eyes, bring moral shame, multiply sorrow in conception, or create two opposing seed lines. Yet Genesis 3:15 declares two seeds at enmity, and 1 John 3:12 says Cain “was of that wicked one.” That shows the forbidden “knowledge” was Satan’s corrupt approach to life and reproduction, not a harmless bite of produce.
- The serpent was cursed to go on his belly (Genesis 3:14), meaning he was different before the curse. Through that subtle beast Satan introduced a carnal, unbelieving union, and death followed. Adam and Eve were to live by every Word of God; instead, Eve received the serpent’s reasoning against the Word (2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14).
- So the “midst” marks the center of decision: Will man live by God’s revealed Word (Tree of Life), or by a mixture—good and evil together—offered by the serpent (tree of knowledge)?
4) Reinforcing Statement
You see, the question of the garden is still the question today. Choose Christ the Word and live, or mix the Word with human reasoning and die. The way back to the Tree of Life is opened through Jesus Christ, and the overcomer will eat of it again.
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Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Questions and Answers on Hebrews, part 1
57-0925 §74
Now I will bring the story up. It was all pure and holy; there was no sin or no defilement. Now I will get this first question first. The tree in the middle of the garden, in the midst of the tree. The tree was the woman. Now I will prove that to you by the Scriptures if you'll just be patient a few minutes. We will get first whether she conceived before she knew Adam or not, or 'fore... Listen: And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden, in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themsel...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 3:E-104
Now that we have come this far, let me try to crystallize your thinking on this subject so you can see the necessity of our going into the 'serpent seed doctrine' as I have. We start with the fact that there were TWO trees in the midst of the garden. The Tree of Life was Jesus. The other tree is definitely Satan because of what came forth of the fruit of that tree. Now then, we know that both of those trees had a relationship to man or they would never have been placed there. They must have had a part in the sovere...
Christ is the mystery of God revealed
63-0728 §198
Now remember, He is that tree of life contrary to the serpent's seed, you see. He's that seed, the woman's seed, the tree of life in the garden. And unless they put forth their hands and move this tree, they'd eat that tree and live forever. And He's the only tree that can be taken that you can live forever. His Word is life. And that'd be the Word then (the Word of God which Eve turned down in the Garden of Eden)--- then here's Christ the Word, made manifest. And when He come on earth, He was the tree of life. Do...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 3:E-75
Now to get the real meaning of what we are about to go into, I must caution you to ever keep in mind that religion (spiritual matters if you like), is composed of two parts that intertwine but are as opposite as black and white. Religion and the spiritual world are made of those two trees which had their roots in Eden. Both the Tree Of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil stood in the midst of the garden and no doubt their very branches intertwined each other. Thus in the Ephesian Church is that same...
The restoration of the Bride Tree
62-0422 §88
Now, that's the tree that Joel spoke about here, see. It cannot die! The worms eat it down, but it couldn't die. In its root it had the predestinated truth; it had God's Word; this tree did. And this tree is that tree all the way... It was put in the garden of Eden. All trees by the woman died; we all die by the woman. By birth we all die. But through woman come death, for this birth come by woman. All right! Then this has to die, because of sin; but the birth, the new birth that come by Christ, cannot die. That's...