Re: [ejlist] DIE SCHERE #38: Notes: Der Baum des Lebens

[Rebing@t-online.de (Rebing)]

" As far as I recall Adam and Eve ate fruits from the tree of knowledge of good 
and evil and were expelled from paradise and forced to establish or found 
human civilization in order to keep them away from the tree of live - of 
which up to then nothing had been said."

Walter, 
you are right, but the  biblical text has it a bit more complicated. There are 
two forbidden trees in paradise. If you eat the fruit of the one you will know 
good from evil, and thus be like the gods. If you eat the fruit of the second 
one, you will be even more like the gods because then you will live for ever. 
Touching the tree of life is obviously the greater crime and more difficult 
because now, after the first crime of Adam and Eve, the path to it is guarded by 
Cherubims and a flaming sword. 

Genesis 2,9: "And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is 
pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of 
the garden; and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." It is obvious that 
there are two different trees which are more important than all the others. 
God's famous Verbot is at this point clearly about only one of them: ""But of 
the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day 
that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Gen. 2, 17) Eve is aware that 
there is one tree that is prohibited even to touch: "And 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 which is in the midst of the garden God hath said, Ye shall not eat of 
it, neither shell ye touch it, lest ye die." (Gen. 3,3). Which tree she does not 
say, but again the serpent reminds her which one it is and why God is so 
particular about it: "in the day ye eat thereof…ye shall be as gods"). 

The seemingly even more important role of the tree of life emerges at the end of 
the same chapter (Gen. 3,22-24): After the two humans have touched the forbidden 
tree of knowledge and eaten its fruit, the Lord specifies their crime: "And the 
LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us (1), to know good and 
evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, 
and eat, live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of 
Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and 
he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which 
turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."

By referring to this story I tried to explain EJ's sentence: "Der Baum des 
Lebens wird berührt." Atheists don't care about divine prohibitions, if they are 
ready to rob time from the gods this is tantamount to touching the forbidden 
tree of life. 

(1) Having been told and believed for a lifetime that the Old Testament is the 
manifesto of monotheism I am intrigued to learn that the Lord refers to Himself 
as one of several or even many gods here ("the man is become as one of us"). Or 
does he express solidarity with his angels here? ((:-))

Günter