What Is the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in Genesis 3?
1) Direct Answer
- The tree of life is Christ—God’s own Life and Word offered to man.
- The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is Satan’s perverted wisdom, offered through the serpent, mixing truth with error and bringing death. It was not an apple tree; it was a channel of union with unbelief that produced a corrupt seed.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- Genesis 2:9 places both trees “in the midst” of the garden, making them central to man’s choice.
- Genesis 2:17 says, “in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” After partaking, death set in (Genesis 3:19; Romans 5:12).
- Genesis 3:1-6 shows the serpent ministering a message contrary to God’s Word, and Eve receiving it. 2 Corinthians 11:3 confirms, “the serpent beguiled Eve.”
- Genesis 3:7 says “they knew that they were naked” and covered their loins, showing moral shame, not a stomach issue from fruit.
- Genesis 3:15 declares enmity between two seeds: the woman’s Seed and the serpent’s seed. That speaks of a real lineage. 1 John 3:12 says, “Cain was of that wicked one,” revealing the serpent’s line through unbelief.
- Genesis 3:14 curses the serpent “upon thy belly,” showing a creature brought down—once upright, now degraded.
- The tree of life points to Christ: “In Him was life” (John 1:4). He said, “I am the life” (John 14:6), “I am the living bread” (John 6:51). Overcomers are promised to eat of the tree of life (Revelation 2:7), and in the New Jerusalem it appears again (Revelation 22:2). God barred the way to it (Genesis 3:24), so fallen man wouldn’t live forever in sin. Access opens again by redemption.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- Literal fruit cannot give a conscience of good and evil, nor does it make one ashamed of nakedness. But receiving a wrong word and entering a wrong union brings moral shame and death.
- God speaks of “seed” in Genesis 3:15. Fruit doesn’t beget a lineage; reproduction does. That’s why sorrow in conception and childbirth was multiplied (Genesis 3:16). The issue touched the womb and the life stream.
- If Adam and Eve had then taken the tree of life, they would have lived forever in a fallen state. Therefore the tree of life is eternal life in Christ; the other tree brought death by mixing good and evil—religion without revelation, truth mingled with a lie.
4) Reinforcing Statement
Now notice: to “eat” is to receive and become one with what you take in. Receiving Christ, the Word and Spirit, is partaking of the tree of life today; receiving the serpent’s reasoning is partaking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Stay with the pure Word, and you live. Mix it, and you die.
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 Serpent's Seed
58-0928E §46
All right. Let's read now in Genesis. Now, the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD GOD had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, has God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? ... the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, God has said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth...
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...
Demonology, physical realm, part 1
53-0608A §66
Even that tree there has life in it. All the science in the world couldn't make one blade of grass. Did you know that? They make something looks like it, but they can't find the formula of life. That's God, see. Jesus said to the tree, "Cursed be you. You don't have any fruit, and you'll never have any." They passed back by there. It was about eight o'clock that morning. Passed back about eleven o'clock as they was going to dinner, Peter said, "Look at that tree! It's dead from the roots up." Why? Jesus rebuked the...
Questions and Answers on Hebrews, part 1
57-0925 §78
And watch! And in that day there was a Cherubim set a-guard this tree. That if they ever tasted that life tree, they would all live forever. How many knows that? They'd all live forever. And the first time they could taste it... The Angel said, "We will guard it." And they put Cherubims there with flaming swords towards the east to guard it. They took it back to the East, and guarded that tree with flaming swords so they could not get in to get it (this tree). And when Jesus come, He said, "I am the bread of life,...
The god of this evil age
65-0801M §67
How contrary is denomination to God's Word. He never had one, never dealt in one, and never dealt with one. I want some historian to show me where ever a prophet ever come out of the church. Show me where God ever blessed the church after it was organized. She went on the shelf and died with intellectual wisdom from the devil by their leaders and refused the Word of God as it growed up into the perfect stature of Christ. Now, it's at the head. How contrary... Separate from that unbelieving Eve, you children of the...