Tag: forbidden fruit

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Forbidden Fruit

This is part three of a series that discusses what Adam & Eve ‘consumed’ in the Garden of Eden that caused them to be banished from the Garden and introduced death to mankind.

The first two are short and should be read before this one:

1.  Why an Apple?

2.  Fig(urative) Trees

I like to keep my blogs short, because I know I get intimidated by lengthy pieces of work.  I promise to set as time to read them and I seldom do . . . eventually forgetting I was going to.  By keeping these short, I hope to trick you into giving me a little of your time and if what I write interests you, you will bookmark my page.

The word “fruit” can literally mean a piece of food, but most often, fruit is the result of doing or having something.  We have heard the idiom, “the fruits of one’s labor”, meaning the profit derived from producing something by your handiwork.  This concept comes from the Word:

1 Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways. 2 For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. (Psalms 128:1-2)

18 Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion. 19 Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God. (Ecclesiastes 5:18-19)

Having the Spirit of Yahweh “in” us (a concept exclusive to the NT, people had a portion of the Spirit of Yahweh “on” them in the OT) also produces fruit, if we allow it:

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Conversely, the works of the flesh also produces fruit:

19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)

‘Not inheriting the Kingdom of God’ means being cast into the “lake of fire”.  There are only two destinations after judgment, the kingdom or the lake.  One is life and the other is death (it is not eternal punishment – read, The Fire that Consumes by Edward Fudge).

Adam and Eve ‘consumed’ something (‘fruit”) from something (a “tree”) or someone (a “race” of beings) which gave them the ‘knowledge of good and evil’.

Jeremiah “ate” the Word of Yahweh (Jeremiah 15:16).  He did not literally (at least I hope not) cut up a scroll digested the manuscript with a nice white wine and a side of sweet potatoes.

When we eat literal food, it literally become a part of us.  The food is broken down in our stomachs and the nutrients are transported to our cells to nourish them.  We become one with the food. 

Jeremiah ‘eating’ the Word is him becoming one with the Scripture.  Ezekiel did not literally eat a scroll in Ezekiel 3 – context is Ezekiel 1 where he has a vision.

So if “eating” the Word of Yahweh is a good thing, what did the “snake” give them that was a bad thing (you thought I forgot that I promised to talk about who or what the snake was)?  Let us return to Genesis 3:

1 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, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?  2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

Were all the animals in the Garden capable of speech . . . or just the snakes and presumably the parrots?  Eve is not bewildered by a talking snake?

When Yahweh has his line-up in verses 9-19, the snake is told, “Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:” 

Yahweh did not take away the snake’s power of speech.  Do they not talk anymore because they always have dust in their mouth?  Despite all the ‘photographic’ evidence from scores of paintings, I think we can agree that the “snake” was not a snake.

Giving animal characteristics to a human or deity is the figure of speech “zoomorphism” – defined as:

1 : the representation of deity in the form or with the attributes of the lower animals,

2 : the use of animal forms in art or symbolism

(Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

Many believe the snake is Lucifer and he is called a snake because of the conniving and dangerous attributes we attribute to a snake.  It would be like someone saying, “Lucifer is like a snake” (which is a simile), only removing the comparative language and calling the thing a snake.

The snake is never identified, so it could or could not be Lucifer.  Many heavenly beings probably occupied the Garden and other parts of the Earth.  If they were not allowed in the Garden, why wasn’t SnakeDude punished for that infraction, also?

The 200 angels that descended to Mount Hermon in Genesis 6 (a much more detailed narrative can be found in the First Book of Enoch – I gave links to download in my last blog) taught humans all forms of knowledge, both good (metal-working, etc) and evil (astrology, magic, etc).

Because of their co-habitating with human women and creating a race of giants, plus their introduction of charms, idols, and abhorrent sexual practices, these angels were cast into “chains of darkness” where they are exiled until Judgment Day (Enoch Chapter 10).

Lucifer has not been banished (he was in the desert tempting Yeshua)  So we can assume he was not the one teaching Eve good and evil.  Or he was the one and Yahweh was furious at him, but when 200 angels subsequently did the same thing, He felt the need to mete out an especially heinous punishment to stop others from doing it again.

Unfortunately, I have no idea how to end this teaching and my brain is beginning to hurt (it’s not a big brain or a big pain . . . so fear not).  No, I don’t have all the answers.

To sum up my thinking:

1.  The tree was a metaphor for one of the angelic beings with ‘special’ knowledge that frequented the Garden.

2.  The fruit was a metaphor for what that being produced with its knowledge (i.e., astrology, magic, etc.)

3.  The snake could have been Lucifer (or not) who acted as a slick and slimy salesman to get Eve to partake of what the “tree” was offering.

4. Disobeying Yahweh is sin and Eve disobeyed knowingly, or was tricked (was she confused by the “snake” because Adam failed to instruct her sufficiently?).  Adam followed Eve into sin knowingly.

I still owe you an examination on why the flood was necessary because of the sin of Adam and Eve.  I also owe you a definition of good fruit and bad fruit and how to tell them apart.

Stay tuned for next week’s blog.

I didn’t do a shameless plug for my book, Grafted: Embracing Torah. 

There, I did it.

It is available at Amazon, but I have made some revisions, so if you don’t see it there, try again in a few days.  This book (or something similar) will be helpful in discerning good works from bad.

Thanks for your time and interest.

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Fig(urative) Trees

or . . . “not seeing the forest for the trees”

In my last Post, I tried to lay the groundwork that the “fruit” of Genesis 3 is not a literal piece of food that Eve consumed and then Adam helped himself, also.

If there was a tree in the Garden, and its fruit provided anyone who consumed it “knowledge of good and evil”, what was to stop the animals in the Garden from eating of it and becoming wise?  The same question can be asked of the “tree of life” in Genesis 3:22.

I believe it is safe to assume that the story is figurative in significant ways.  I want to examine some of the specifics and then retell the story in a way that makes sense and agrees with the context of the Word.

I thought this was going to be a two-part blog, but the volume of information mandated that I break it up into three (possibly four?) blogs so as not to overwhelm the reader.  Failure to understand what is being conveyed in the ‘Fall of Man’ can be a deterrent to understanding what actually happened and how we may be repeating the ‘fall’ of Adam and Eve today.

I defined “fruit” in the last blog (it is a quick read . . . I’ll wait for you to check it out and come back).  I now want to expose the word “tree” so that we can understand that this is probably figurative, also.  But what these two words are conveying is powerful!

Tree is the Hebrew word, ‘ets (meaning tree, wood, plank, staff, stick, etc.).  We’ve all seen trees and we understand the physical nature of them – trees have stages of growth, just like humans (my thanks to arborday.org for the following analogies):

1.  Trees begin as a seed like humans, and like us, if they are watered and fed, they will grow and mature

2.  A tree that sinks good roots in good soil will be able to whether most storms.  Children who are taught well and have a basis in something ‘bigger’ than themselves (hopefully that something bigger is the Word of God – parable of the good seed in four different soils and the seed and tares (Matthew 13)) will be able to face opposition and stand despite it.

3.  A good tree will produce ‘good fruit’ (e.g., apples, pears, bananas, etc.) while a ‘bad tree’ will produce poisonous fruit (e.g., elderberries, apricot pits, ackee fruit, etc.).  Trees have no choice, but man can choose to produce good ‘fruit’ (i.e., works) or bad fruit.  The definition of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ fruit is vital, also.  Stay tuned for that.

4.  Once a tree reaches middle age, its branches thicken and they sag more.  Its roots (lower limbs) weaken and it becomes more susceptible to insects and disease.

A person may be compared to a tree:

1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. 3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

Psalm 1:1-3

12 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 13 Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;

Psalm 92:12-14

  • Nebuchadnezzar was compared to a ‘tall, strong, and fair’ tree (Daniel 4)
  • David compares himself to a cedar tree (Psalm 52)

As well as a nation:

  • The tribe of Judah is spoken of as a cedar tree (Ezekiel 17)
  • The nation of Israel is compared to the fig tree, having both good and bad fruit (Jeremiah 24; Hosea 9:10)
  • Yeshua curses the fig tree that has leaves, but no fruit (Matthew 24).  Israel looked good, but they were not doing unto Yahweh as they should.

The Olive Tree:

Olive trees denote beauty (Jer. 11:16, Hosea 14:6), abundance, and peace.  The dove returns to Noah’s Ark (Genesis 8:11) with an olive branch signifying the promise of the end of the great deluge.  Even today, the expression, “extending the olive branch”, means a promise to end hostilities between people and nations.

The oil of the olive is used in anointing, cooking, and lamps to provide light.

When an olive tree gets very old (often hundreds of years old) and has reached its maximum production, farmers usually cut it down to improve its future growth. Soon, new shoots grow from the old stump, and the tree begins producing olives again.

This aspect of the olive tree provides an image of Isaiah’s prophecy:

1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;

Isa. 11:1-2

As a descendant of David, Yeshua was the shoot from the stump of Jesse (David’s father).

The word “branch”, here, is nёșer (branch, a family line).  Elsewhere, branch is used when translated from twenty-three (23) different Hebrew words.  Branch is almost always literally an outgrowth from a tree, but, also almost always figuratively used to denote a descendant, a tribe of Israel, or even entire classes of people (e.g., the Gentiles). *

Yeshua compares his Father to a gardener who cares for the plants in his garden:

1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth [prunes] it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

John 15:1-6

Being of Israel is not enough.  Those Hebrew branches that do not produce “good fruit” are pruned from the tree and burned up in the fire.

The Apostle Paul refers to the ‘believing’ Gentiles as a branch that can and will be “grafted” into the native, olive branch (i.e., Israel – Romans 11:11-33).  Also:

2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: 3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, 4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) 5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; 6 That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: (emphasis added)

Ephesians 3:2-6

This is not a new revelation.  Yahweh tell Moses,

48 And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.  49 One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you [believing Gentile]. (Exodus 12:48-49 – see also, Leviticus 18:26; 24:22; Numbers 9:14; 15:14-16; )

Ruth, a Moabite (a race of people who were enemies of the children of Israel), adopts the faith of her mother-in-law Naomi (Ruth 1:16); becomes the wife of Boaz; and has a son named Obed, the grandfather of David.  This Gentile is in the Christ-line.

Similarly, Rahab, a harlot from Jericho who hid the spies that Joshua sent to search out the promised land and proclaimed that Yahweh was the one, true God (Joshua 2). James tells us that:

Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

James 2:25

Yeshua commanded the Apostles (before his ascension) to “make disciples of all nations”.  He had to give Peter a vision (Acts 10) to remind him that believing Gentiles were part of the kingdom because  they were not reaching out to anyone who was not Jewish.  Tradition had come to regard all Gentiles as ‘dogs’ and unclean – completely nullifying what Yahweh had told Israel dozens of times.

As a side note – if you think the vision of Acts 10 was telling Peter it is okay to eat pork rinds then you have taken the narrative completely out of the context of the Chapter, which begins by telling us of a devout, Roman centurion named Cornelius (a Gentile ‘dog’) and ends with Cornelius and his Gentile family receiving holy spirit and speaking in tongues.

To summarize what we have learned of the act that precipitated the Fall of Man:

  1. The “fruit” that Adam and Eve ate of was not an actual apple.
  2. The “fruit” of Genesis 3 may not have even been an actual piece of food.
  3. The two trees (“Knowledge of Good and Evil” and “Life”) may not have been actual trees
  4. Trees are often used figuratively to represent people, nations, or races of people.
  5. Yahweh intends to take all the ‘believing’ branches for all the nations and graft them into one tree that bears “good fruit”.
  6. The roots of that tree is anchored in the Word of God.

In the next blog(s), we will examine:

  1. The “snake” that instructed Eve to eat of the ‘forbidden fruit’;
  2. how evil “fruit” from evil “trees” caused Adam and Eve to fall;
  3. how it necessitated the Flood;
  4. how it is destroying believers (and would-be believers) today; and 
  5. The definition of “good fruit”.

  Many before us have atoned for their sins, but recognizing the sin (bad fruit) is an important first step.  A copy of the Book of Enoch will help in the next Installment(s).  Free downloads are available at:

* – an interesting and very informative word study of the word “branch” comes from the Hebrew word, șemaḥ (growth, the Branch – as a messianic title).  It is used only five times in the OT and each one refers to the different perspectives of the four Gospels and Revelation (e.g., Zechariah 3:8 – ‘servant’.  Mark is written from the perspective of Yeshua as a servant).  I expand upon this in my book, Grafted: Embracing Torah (if I didn’t offer a shameless plug for my book in every blog, you might think I was outsourcing my articles).