Friday, November 04, 2022

Which tree did Eve and Adam eat from?

WAIT, WHAT? What Really Happened in the Garden of Eden (Jack Sasson, TheTorah.com).
The primordial man and woman may believe they ate from the Tree of Knowledge, but they actually ate from the Life-Giving Tree. This causes a chain reaction leading to the emergence of sexuality, procreation, and continuity for the human species.
Raises some interesting points that I had never thought about, notably the woman's apparent confusion over which tree was forbidden. But I think that to say that they ate from the tree of life goes against the grain of the narrative. For example, in 3:22 God expresses worry that the humans will eat "also" from the tree of life, which implies they had eaten from the other tree. That said, it is hard to make all the details in the story fit together.

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