The Two Trees and the Interpretation of Sound
Now return to Eden.
Genesis gives us two significant trees:
The Tree of Life and The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
We should be careful here, Genesis does not say Adam and Eve continually ate from the Tree of Life before the fall, but it does create an extraordinary before-and-after picture.
Before eating: “They were naked and were not ashamed.”
After eating: “The eyes of both were opened.”
And shortly afterward: “I heard your sound in the garden, and I was afraid.”
Notice the movement: Presence→ nakedness→ no shame…
then: knowledge→ eyes opened→ self-consciousness→ covering→ hiding→ fear.
The Sound may not have changed… the hearer changed.
The tree did not necessarily change God’s Sound, it changed humanity’s consciousness in relationship to the Sound.
Before the rupture, the Divine approach apparently required no defensive interpretation; no: What does He want from me? Am I acceptable? Am I in trouble? Do I measure up?
They simply existed: naked and unashamed.
Then humanity becomes painfully self-conscious of: Good. Bad. Acceptable. Unacceptable. Covered. Exposed. Safe. Dangerous. God for me. God against me.
Perhaps shame becomes an interpreter standing between humanity and Presence.
God approaches → Adam hears → Shame translates: Danger.
Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge
One possible theological reading is that the Tree of Life represents received life, while the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil represents humanity’s grasping for the authority to define, judge, and categorize reality independently.
One says: Receive and live.
The other becomes: Evaluate and judge.
And how easily religion can become dominated by that second posture:
Am I good? Am I bad? Are you good? Are you bad? Am I saved? Are you saved?
Does God approve of me? Does God approve of you?
Am I in? Are you out?
Everything becomes categorization.
Eventually we may possess enormous amounts of knowledge about God while becoming increasingly unable to recognize the character of God.
Jesus continually disrupts this.
Religious authorities bring to Jesus a woman and effectively ask: Which category belongs to her? Jesus sees a person.
They bring Him a blind man and ask: “Who sinned?”
They seek a category of blame; Jesus moves toward restoration.
They condemn healing on the Sabbath: Right. Wrong. Lawful. Unlawful.
…Jesus keeps moving toward life.
Perhaps that is why John so relentlessly connects Jesus with Life:
- “In him was life.”
- “I am the resurrection and the life.”
- “I came that they may have life.”
And eventually Revelation returns humanity to: the Tree of Life.
Genesis ends Eden with access to the Tree guarded.
Revelation ends with the Tree of Life available again and an invitation:
“Come.”
Journal & Reflection
Pause here before moving on.
Write freely. These questions are invitations, not tests.
☐ Which “tree” seems to dominate your spiritual life: receiving and living, or evaluating and judging?
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☐ Where have you allowed categorization to replace relationship?
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☐ What questions arise when God approaches you?
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☐ How does Jesus disrupt your tendency to categorize people?
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☐ What would choosing life over judgment look like this week?
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