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 uncertain sound
62-0714 §56
Now notice. Jesus... There was two trees in the garden of Eden. One of them was life, and one was death. One of them was the woman; the other one was the man. And life that come by the woman dies. But the life that come by the man lives. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life that come from God out of heaven." The angels ... the seraphims guarded the tree of life, which was the bread of life that come from God out of heaven. And notice that they wouldn't take it without an atonement. And the atonement had to be made,...
The restoration of the Bride Tree
62-0422 §178
The first thing that he did, he destroyed God's first, precious fruit tree, Christ. He was that tree from the garden of Eden. That's right. The first fruit tree, he destroyed it. The first one God planted here on earth was Christ; he destroyed that tree that was bearing His fruit. Now, they had all kind of organizations, and he just had that in his hands; but when he come to a tree that bore the actual fruit, that Roman bug got in there (see), destroyed the tree. The tree? Yes. Jesus said, "If I (in St. John), if I...
Questions and Answers on Hebrews, part 1
57-0925 §76
But I want to ask you, just from a literal standpoint. Now to prove to you that she was the tree, every woman is a fruit tree. How many know that? Aren't you the fruit of your mother? Certainly, you are. "And in the midst of the fruit ... or in the midst of the tree, the fruit that she ... not touch." If you'll notice, wasn't Jesus the tree of life? Didn't He promise over in St. Matthew ... or St. John, the 6th chapter, "I am the bread of life that come from God out of heaven"?
Super Sign
62-0624 §59
In the garden of Eden there were two trees, one woman, and one man. All that lived by that woman died. She's the tree of death. If you was borned of a woman you died. When you're borned of a man, Christ Jesus, you live. Notice. Then Adam's bride was defiled before he got to her. JOHN6:35 When Jesus came, He was that tree of life. "I am the bread of life, the tree of life, come from God out of heaven. If a man eats this, he never dies." Then when He went away, He purchased a bride tree. And that tree was established...
The uncertain sound
62-0714 §58
Now, it was about a thousand years there, there was nothing but a stump. But you cannot, because the life of that tree's predestinated to bring forth a tree... Up come Luther, started it growing. What did it do? Organized. The husbandman pruned the branches. Come up into the Methodist. What did it do? Organized, just like the mother. Prune the branches, come on up into the Pentecostals. It's done the same thing, organized. God's pruned the branches. But that life in the heart of that tree has to live. God said, "I...