What was the tree of life. If one believes in a literal translation of the Bible
what is this tree all about?

for a definition this might help:
tree of life
as for the bible's version, couldn't tell you. Not a bible reader.

I never know, in English you use to call it Tree of Life but in the spanish Bible it is "the Tree of Knowledge". Many have said it was a prediction of our times when we try to become almost godlike through Science (knowledge), instead of the History of the begining of the world.

PS: Why is this in the Spirituality vs Skepticism board? It is not a matter of NBs vs. Bs

EDIT: Oops, after reading that link of Shadowdancer I realized you meant the Tree of Life that is present in almost all mythologies.

If you wish to know what the tree of life/knowledge was, then go check out the various religions that preceded Judiasm. That is where the Jewish scribes took their ideas from when they penned the bible during and shortly after the Babylonian Exile.

Well that was partly why the Cherubim protected the garden for. To keep Adam and Eve from the Tree of Life, which was thought to give immortality.

I do not think there was anything specific about the Tree of Life, except that God said so. Likewise the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the only significance in that tree was that God forbade the eating of it. To defy God is to know evil. Up until this point, Adam and Eve had a pure relationship with God, untainted by sin. Through disobeying God, they had the knowledge of good and evil, and in that moment, the relationship was broken.

That's what I get out of this, at least.

I dont' believe there ever actually was a real Adam and Eve, the passage is metaphorical. However, the clarity of teaching speaks to me still (contrary to what others have claimed, I do not disregard Genesis 1-3 just because I don't take a literal interpretation - what I got out of this would ring true, whether it was literal or metaphorical).

Regards, PA

How about it introduces the understanding of relativism or dualism, How about Adam and Eve are just the names given to first humans??? Genesis the myth begins: it starts right out with god creates imperfect beings , demands they are perfect or else (don't ask, you don't want to go there )then after many years God gives in says "okay you don't have to be good, you just have to feel bad when you aren't being good and accept JC as your SAvior the only being who could be perfect all the time" to satisfying dietys hunger for perfection, so religon is saying the one son of God is saving mankind from the flaws the father gave them, anyhoo and do you need sk why some pass on this philosophy????Namaste sheri

How can you believe in any of the people in the bible if you do not believe that Adam and Eve were real? Could you not say then that everyone represented in the bible never existed? In my opinion that is what the bible is, it is a creation by man telling quite a story. What has grown from that story is people taking what it says and the events that happened as literal truth. This is what the religions are now based off of, a literal interpretation to stories written by man.

Read the poetic nature of Genesis 1. Note how Days 1 and 4 relate to each other, days 2 and 5 relate, and 3 and 6 relate. It is clearly poetic verse. It is through this that Adam is introduced.

The purpose of Genesis 1-3 is not to show us a literal HOW of creation, but to make one basic point - WHO was responsible.

Regards, PA

I think some would question your assertion that free will is a "flaw."

"If this being is omnipotent, then every occurrence, including every human action, every human thought, and every human feeling and aspiration is also His work; how is it possible to think of holding men responsible for their deeds and thoughts before such an almighty Being? In giving out punishment and rewards He would to a certain extent be passing judgment on Himself. How can this be combined with the goodness and righteousness ascribed to Him?
[Albert Einstein, Out of My Later Years]"

You're saying being omnipotent means you necessarily control everything? I'd always took it to mean that you have the choice.

He looks but does not see....Listens but does not hear.

I saw your quote, including the first line. Thanks for putting it in red for me. And...

I don't see why it's necessarily true. Care to explain?

If this being is omnipotent, then every occurrence, including every human action, every human thought, and every human feeling and aspiration is also His work


If everything is his work how can there be free will?

Why does being omnipotent mean everything is his work?

Rom.8:29-30
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

Rom.9:11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)

Eph.1:4-5
4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

2 Th.2:11-12
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Free will from a omnipotent deity?

zannie 2 words FEAR CONSTRUCT....the 2 enemies of man fear and guilt.........

I don't see any of those quotes as disproving free will.

Those Bible verses show that the Christian God (if that is what you believe in) has "PREDESTINATED" our lives, our choices in life, what we are or will become, the very choices we make in life.....if your God has done that......how can there be free will?

Well, this discussion is going on in more than one thread now, but in every single one of those verses "predestination" is not God running contrary to free will. Unless you subscribe to the idea that the only way God could promote free will is to take no action under any circumstance! God is reacting to events and to how people are conducting themselves.

Furthermore, simply because some aspects of the outcome of a situation are predictable doesn't mean that the entire situation is predictable. For instance: I know that a car in a city with a stuck accellerator will crash into something eventually, but I don't necessarily know where. I might be able to use maximum speed of the vehicle and its mass to calculate how fast it'll be going, and what kind of damage it will do, and how many collisions on what surface will make it stop. But the person behind the wheel is the unknown factor: will they swerve? Will they side into a barrier to slow the car down and escape? Will they pass out? If the person were merely a biological artifact, this too could probably be calculated since God knows all the variables. However, the Bible holds that people have a spirit, and it is this--the mix of rational and nonrational thought processes--which ends up being unpredictable in some regards.

I think that the Pearl of Great Price says this about the tree of life. I'm not really sure though, and I don't care to read through the whole book looking for it. Here's a link to where the book is read to you, in case you would like to listen.

http://www.lds.org/broadcast/pearlofgreatp...5343,79,00.html

I have no idea of a christian tree of life, but there is nordic Yggdrasil, a massive tree whose branches connect with its roots and form a giant sphere which forms a frame for the universe, the branches extend to Valhalla, the roots to their hell concept (i cant recall the name of it right now) and the trunk came through our plane of existence.


P.S. i think the heaven earth and hell were asgard, midgard, and niflheim