Page 38 - ADAM IN GENESIS

the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The nature of these two
trees is debated, but I will maintain that these were two real trees that God planted in His
garden in Eden.
The Bible never says that Adam ate from the tree of life, but after God's curse in chapter
3, God sends him out of the garden and stations Cherubim and a flaming sword to guard
the way to the tree lest he eat of its fruit and live forever (Gen. 3:22-24). This suggests it
was a real tree and that God indeed endowed the fruit with life-giving powers. When
Adam sinned he was sentenced to death and there was to be no way back to eternal life
except through the promise he was given of redemption in Gen. 3:15. It is safe to say that
this tree no longer exists on earth, but as the case with other things in Scripture, it was a
model of the one in heaven. A tree of life will again be seen by all believers in Christ in
heaven (Rev. 2:7; 22:2, 14).
The fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was strictly forbidden by God
to be eaten upon penalty of death (Gen. 2:17). We will explore the meaning of this death
a bit later. Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation and ate the fruit and mankind was
then in need of a redeemer to get back into a right relationship with God. Nothing more is
said of this tree after Genesis 3, but the account leaves every indication that the tree was a
literal tree with literal fruit.

The Rivers Around Eden:
Moses takes a brief intermission to describe the local geography around the Garden of
Eden. Verses 10-14 contain no wayyiqtol verbs so we can tell this section is parenthetic
to the main storyline. This passage mentions the four rivers that flow into the garden; the
Piyshon (LXX Phison; English Pishon), the Giychon (LXX Geon; English Gihon), the
Chiddeqel (LXX Tigris; English Tigris), and the Pherath (LXX Euphrates; English
Euphrates). Instantly we can recognize two of these four rivers, the Tigris and the
Euphrates. Presently these two rivers are located in Iraq. They flow south from their
headwaters in the highlands of Turkey and join together in Al Qurnah, Iraq (31.01N;
47.44E). From there they flow together approximately 114 miles and empty into the
Persian Gulf. The other two rivers are not known today. Many reasons have been given,
here are a few of them: 1.) The rivers were larger and presently are dried up, 2.) They
were always ephemeral at best and now are dried up, 3.) The Jewish historian Josephus
identifies them as the Ganges (Pishon) and the Nile (Gihon), and 4.) Their evidence has
been wiped away by the global Noachian Flood. We will explore these and offer
plausible interpretations below. It should be noted that even in this parenthetical passage
there is a considerable amount of geologic data from which we can piece back together
the world as it looked pre-Fall and pre-Flood.
As we explore what the passage says about the geography near Eden we notice that it
says a river (singular) flowed out of Eden. From there it divided into four rivers (plural).
This gives the impression that there was a single river running through Eden watering the
entire garden and then it splits into four separate rivers downstream. Rivers do not
typically separate downstream naturally, so could there be another interpretation, or is
this how the natural world worked before the Fall and before the Flood? Though the
English versions are usually rendered this way, it is unfortunate because the text can