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.
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.
The Pillar of Fire
53-0509 §25
When I was a young Baptist preacher baptizing my first converts, five hundred of them down on the river, my first revival. I had about three thousand attended the revival. And my education was so poor, till my girlfriend read the Bible while I preached. That's right. It's not much better tonight. But God's not known by education. God's known by faith. God's not known by knowledge. There was two trees in the Garden of Eden. One of them was the tree of knowledge, the other one the tree of life. Man left the tree of l...
The Seal of God and the Mark of the Beast, part 1
61-0216 §35
Look at the smoke coming up from the altar, come right on up and settle down on Calvary. As Cain killed Abel at the altar, Judas killed Jesus at the altar. That's right. Notice. Again, you only see three crosses, don't you? There were four---four crosses. There was Jesus in the middle, a thief on one side, and a thief there on the other. And Judas hung himself on a sycamore tree. And Jesus was hanging on a tree, too. (Cursed is he that hangeth on a tree, and is made a curse for us.) Judas was on just as much cross...
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...
Hear ye Him
57-0105 §15
In the garden of Eden, there was a tree of knowledge and a tree of life. And man quit eating from the tree of life and eat from the tree of knowledge, and separated himself from his maker. Every time he takes a bite off of it, he destroys himself. He bit off gunpowder: kills his neighbor. He bit off automobile, science: kills more than all the wars put together. He's bit himself a hydrogen bomb. Now, I wonder what he's going to do with that. He destroys himself by knowledge. And God is not known by knowledge. God's...
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...