Reflections on Genesis 2:9

“The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

It only just occurred to me that there were two trees in the centre of the garden.  The Tree of Life as well as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  God only gave instructions to not eat from the latter, but what of the former?  Did the Tree of Life bear fruit?  Or was that the Tree that supplied life giving nutrients to the rest of the garden?

In Fishlake National Forest, near Salt Lake City, Utah, there is a “mother tree” there, the Pando Aspen, (Pando is latin for I spread), which has cloned itself into an entire forest.  For some reason, this tree comes to mind when I think of the Tree of Life, and although I don’t think the Pando Aspen is in any way the Tree of Life mentioned in the bible, it does show how one tree can sustain the life of a whole area.  It is believed that when that one tree dies, because of its root system, its clones will subsequently die off as well. So I can’t help but wonder if God purposely placed the Tree of Life there in the centre of the garden so that in some way, this tree “mothers” the garden in itself.  A form of self-sufficiency perhaps.

Still curious about this tree, I’ve done some more research on it, and here are some things I’ve learned:

According to Jewish mythology, in the Garden of Eden there is a tree of life or the “tree of souls” that blossoms and produces new souls, which fall into the Guf, the Treasury of Souls. The Angel Gabriel reaches into the treasury and takes out the first soul that comes into his hand.

The tree of life or universal tree of life is a metaphor, model and research tool used to explore the evolution of life and describe the relationships between organisms, both living and extinct, as described in a famous passage in Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859).

And Tim from The Bible Project states: Well it represents God’s own life and creative power that is made available to others. In fact, God’s first command is that humans eat from all of the trees, including this one.

The above interpretations only serve to confirm to me that the Pando Aspen would most definitely not be the Tree of Life as that relies on it’s rather expansive root system to clone itself, but it does beg to question what would the Tree of Life had looked like and if it did bear fruit as Tim above suggests, then I wonder what kind of fruit.

Going by Jewish Mythology mentioned above, perhaps the Tree of Life was how it was possible for Adam and Eve’s sons to marry IF they were to marry outside the family IF Adam and Eve didn’t procreate any other children.

If we were to believe what Darwin said, as mentioned above, then the Tree of Life connects both the theory of evolution with the biblical story of Adam and Eve. Another interesting and thoughtful concept.

As an afterthought, the tree of life is mentioned again in Revelations 22:2 where once again, it features in the Garden of Eden, once again, providing life to the surrounding garden and here it’s also mentioned that the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

I would love to hear feedback of your thoughts, if you’ve chosen to read this, as to your theory about the Tree of Life, why it’s only briefly mentioned in the Bible and what you think its purpose might have been.