The Tree of Life in Eden
Genesis 3:22–24 (Torah / Old Testament)
- Earliest record
- 600 BCEComposition of Genesis; the Qumran fragments of Genesis 3 (1QGen 3:11-14, 4QGen-k 3:1-2) do not preserve 3:22-24.
- Said to date from
- 1300 BCEasserted by Traditional Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch at Mount Sinai
The claim is about 700 years older than the evidence.
King James Version (Genesis 3:22, 24)“And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. 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.”
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Karl Budde (1883) saw that Genesis 3 knows one tree in the garden's midst. John Skinner (1910) judged the tree of life of 3:22-24 'not from the hand of the chief narrator'.
John Skinner, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis (1910), pp. 52-53, citing K. Budde, Die biblische Urgeschichte (1883)
The primordial tree of eternal life guarded by cherubim and a turning flaming sword.
More context
In the Eden narrative the tree of life grows in the midst of the garden beside the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:9). Only the second is forbidden (2:17). After they eat from it, God says the man has become as one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not also take of the tree of life and live for ever. He drives them out and places cherubim and a flaming, ever-turning sword east of Eden to keep the way to the tree (3:22-24). Proverbs 3:18 later calls wisdom 'a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her'.
Light
Eternal life, primordial communion with the Creator, spiritual renewal, and ultimate redemption.
Shadow
Separation from the divine source, the tragic pain of exile, and mortal vulnerability.