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.
Expressions
62-0313 §5
Now we are taught in the Scripture that there is a tree of life. It was in the garden of Eden. And this tree of life is where Christians hang as a leaf on this tree. And now in the wintertime, when the leaves are pretty, why, they ... or, in the summertime rather, when the leaves are pretty and green, after awhile frost comes and colors them different colors, and they fall from the tree. And the life goes back into the root of the tree. If we just notice, it's a mysterious thing.
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 3:E-93
Now in the Garden of Eden there were two trees standing in the midst of it. One was the Tree Of Life, the other was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Man was to live by the Tree Of Life; but he was not to touch the other tree or he would die. But man did partake of the other tree, and when he did, death entered into him by his sin, and he became separated from God.
Jehovah-Jireh, part 2
62-0706 §26
God put seraphims there, guarding that tree, that no one would touch it. Now He's got seraphims out, trying to drive them into the tree. Then they seen the vision, they wanted to the tree ... to get back without an atonement. But now after the atonement is made, the devil is blinding them, turn them this way from the tree. Notice. When Christ came on earth, He was God's perfect tree. David saw Him in the first psalm, said, "...tree planted by the river, rivers of water." Many rivers, one water; many gifts, same Spi...
Paradox
64-0206B §30
There's a tree in the garden. And one of them was, if you touched it... Now, we have our differences on that, so I won't go into it. But let's say it was a tree of disobedience. And as soon as they touched that tree, all people was to die. And they had to put them away from this other tree. 'Cause if they eat this tree of life, they would all live knowing right from wrong. That's right. You know that as ministers. We have our ideas on that, and we probably differ what the tree was. But we can all know that Christ i...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 3:E-94
Now that Tree back there in Eden, that Tree which was the source of life, was Jesus. In John, chapters six through eight, Jesus sets Himself forth as the source of eternal life. He called Himself the Bread from heaven. He spoke of giving Himself and that if a man ate of Him he would never die. He proclaimed that He knew Abraham, and that before Abraham, He WAS. He prophesied that He Himself would give them living waters that if man drank he would never thirst again, but would live eternally. He showed Himself as th...