The Tree of the knowledge of Good & Evil (The Genesis Series, Part 14)

Whose report will you believe?  Anything that I encounter that occurred before my life’s firsthand experience must be known to me by faith alone.  I was not there to witness and certify the event; consequently, I am obliged to believe the report I receive.  Unfortunately, the sources of this information very often disagree on the history they report, sometimes even 180° out from each other.  So, whose report will you believe? 

One very foundational example of historic disparity is today’s debate over who created the heaven and the earth—was it God, or did everything just evolve? 

The God position: The Bible represents itself as the Word of God, who is the Creator and eyewitness—one with perfect recall, by the way.  The history begins in Genesis 1:1:  

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

As far as the beginning of man is concerned, the Word of God tells us that we were created in God’s image and after His likeness (Genesis 1:26). 

The naturalist/evolution position: There was a big bang out of nothing—the ultimate free lunch!  From that fortuitous explosion, everything came to be:  The sun, moon, and stars, along with all of earth’s marvels.  Life itself began as a single-celled living organism that was a result of highly-sophisticated inert chemicals coming together in a mysterious and warm pond.  Life from non-life, something famed scientist Louis Pasteur had previously proven impossible. 

According to evolutionists, all life evolved from this miraculous single cell until eventually you came along.  Your family tree includes your cousin, the mushroom, and your father, the monkey.  You should be pleased to have traded up!  The tiny hummingbird was once a giant dinosaur, after all. 

Whose report will you believe? 

Dear visitor, have you yet to be BORN AGAIN as Jesus declares in John 3:3?

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

In just a few moments, I will invite you to follow me in a simple prompt, and if you follow from your heart, you will be changed.  You will literally be born a second time, this time as a son or daughter of God.  This is true.  Today, as in just moments from now, all your sin and shame will be washed away by Christ’s cleansing blood.  You will be reconciled unto God.  Today, all of Satan’s binding chains in your life will be broken.  You will be free and given the power to dominate over that which dominated you.  It all happens now.  Here is the simple prompt I promised: Click onto Further with Jesus for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Genesis 2:9:

And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

GOD SAID, Genesis 2:17:

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

GOD SAID, Genesis 3:1-3:

1 Now the serpent was more subtle 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:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

MAN SAID: If the Bible was authored by God, why doesn’t Genesis, the first book of it, dazzle us with God-inspired truths?  I mean, think about it: The idea that God created all things with His spoken Word is ludicrous!  A big explosion out of nothing makes so much more sense. 

Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 1234 that will, for the 1,234^th time, certify the pure and perfect veracity of God’s beautiful Book, the majority-text Holy Bible.  All of these faith-building features are archived here in text and streaming audio for your edification and to be used as bait by God’s fishers of men.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one. 

Thank you for coming.  May the beauty of God’s face shine upon you. 

You have arrived at the GodSaidManSaid “Genesis Series;” this is Part 14.  Each of these features begins with the following information from the first feature:

According to a 2006 issue of Discover magazine concerning the deceased Carl Sagan: “Sagan approaches religion like any phenomenon.  He isn’t on a quest for life’s meaning, for a comforting philosophy, or even a guide to how we should treat the neighbors.  Sagan seeks truth of a demonstrable kind.  As a puckish example, he wonders why the book of Genesis didn’t include God-inspired truths…” [End of quote]

I recently reviewed an advertisement from a magazine called Free Inquiry that also has a problem with the God of Creation and the first book of the Bible, called Genesis.  Under the heading “Is God Big Enough for the Universe,” Free Inquiry writes:

The authors of Genesis proclaim that God made the heavens and earth in less than a week.  This feat must have amazed these Bronze Age authors, even though they thought the heavens extended only so far as the sky above them.  Of course, they did not know what stars, planets, or galaxies were.  We now know that the universe is so much bigger and so much more complex. [End of quote]

The BORN AGAIN scratch their heads in bewilderment.  Did these folks actually read the book of Genesis? I suppose they did, but God’s revelation is only revealed to the humbled hearts of the children of faith.  This GodSaidManSaid series will be called “The Genesis Series.”  It is our intention to travel through the entire book of Genesis and publish one major God-inspired truth after another.  We will be pulling from previous GodSaidManSaid features and adding the latest information as we go.

Genesis 2:17:

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Was there such a tree?!

The following excerpts are taken from Part 12 of this series:

How can a fallen man, conceived in sin (Psalm 51:5) and laden with trespasses and sins, be reconciled unto God?

All men were not created equal—no, not by a long shot.  Not physically and certainly not mentally.  What standard would God employ to reconcile fallen man unto Himself that would be equal to all? 

When mtDNA Eve (biology’s name for the mother of us all) acted in unbelief, believing Satan’s words over God’s, disobedience followed.  When Y-Chromosome Adam (biology’s name for the father of us all) then followed his wife’s pernicious ways, immortality and paradise were lost.  As a result, all of their progeny (you and I and all of us) were spiritually stillborn—“dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). 

Reconciliation unto God is not achieved through wealth, beauty, strength, or IQ.  Reconciliation is gained through repentance and faith in Christ’s atoning blood and obedience to this Christ, whose name is given in Revelation 19:13 as “The Word of God.”  Notice that reconciliation is achieved by the exact opposite actions demonstrated by our original parents.  Jesus Christ, God’s Word, is the miracle means of reconciliation.  We again lay claim to immortality and Paradise, and Christ describes the gateway to such marvels as BORN AGAIN (John 3:3). [End of quote]

The definition for “sin” is defined in Romans 14:23: …for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

It was unbelief that tore the whole house down, and it is faith that restores it.  Without faith, consequently, it is impossible to please God.  Hebrews 11:6:

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

So, in an act of unbelief and its subsequent disobedience, Eve ate of the forbidden fruit from the forbidden tree, thus opening the door for all sin and death.  Science knows this as the Second Law of Thermodynamics which states that everything goes from order to disorder, from life unto death.  Sundry, ancient, nonbiblical societal records speak of just such a devastating event.  One of the most well-known accounts of a first woman is that of Pandora, whom Greek mythology says was given a box she was instructed to never open lest she unleash upon herself and the world all the ravages of sin and death.  Of Pandora, the Harper Collins Dictionary of Religion writes:

Pandora, in Greek myth the first woman, made from earth and imbued by all the gods with various charms (hence her name).  Sent by Zeus in revenge for Prometheus’s theft of fire, she unlocked evils for mortals by opening a fatal jar (later, “Pandora’s box”).  [End of quote]

The obvious similarities between the Biblical first woman, Eve, and mythology’s Pandora are also revealed in the meaning of their names.  “Eve” means “the mother of all living,” and Pandora means “all gifts.”  However, sin and death was not kept in a box or a jar that the first woman was not to open.  Sin and death were unleashed upon the world through unbelief in and disobedience to God’s Word when the forbidden fruit was eaten. 

The following paragraphs are from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Snake Legs and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil:”

Many ancient societal records speak of the deadly Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil—you’d be surprised where it turns up!  The December 22, 2017, issue of The Week attempts to establish the societal root of the Christmas tree in an article titled, “O Christmas Tree” reads:

Around the same time, medieval Germans were incorporating evergreens into their own Christmastime rituals, via the “Paradise Tree:” an apple-adorned fir that represented the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden. [End of quote]

As an aside: The pagan [devil] roots of the Christmas tree hail back to Nimrod of ancient Babel.  Around 500 years before Christ, the prophet Jeremiah writes in Jeremiah 10:2-4:

2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.

4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

In the publication Search for the Truth, Bruce Malone says an ancient Chinese archaeological finding supports the Biblical account of the infamous tree:

But is there any evidence that this momentous event—when mankind reached up into a tree to grab a forbidden fruit while being tempted by Satan in the form of a snake—is real?  We find exactly that in an ancient bronze statue of a tree found buried in the ruins near Guanghan, China.  This twelve-foot tall tree has sloping branches, but significantly, on the branches bearing fruit, the leaves are shaped like dangerous knives (indicating that the fruit of this tree is dangerous or forbidden).  Coming from the very center of the tree is a long snakelike body, but this snake still has legs near its head and the snake is glaring down near a human hand with its large evil eyes and bared teeth.  Lastly, the bronze statue has a human hand reaching toward the tree near the serpent’s head. 

This huge bronze statue was cast at the very beginning of the Chinese culture—over 3,000 years ago.  It is obvious that, long before missionaries ever arrived in China, these original Chinese people (who were direct descendants of Noah) wanted their children to remember the factual event which brought death into all of creation.  So, they created a twelve-foot-tall bronze tree memorializing one of the most significant events of all human history. [End of quote]

God’s Word is the inerrant truth—miracles and all.  It’s extremely important to establish its inerrancy for everything—absolutely everything depends upon it. [End of quotes]

More detail concerning the archaeological finds in Guanghan was published August 10, 2006 in The Journal of Creation under the heading “the Bronze Tree of Sanxingdui—the oldest man-made Genesis artefact?”

In 1986, workers from a brickyard near Guanghan, China, were digging for clay in the countryside when they discovered various pieces of bronze.  They contacted the authorities, and archaeologists from Huaxi University in Chengdu came and excavated two different pits that were filled with outstanding artefacts of the Sanxingdui People.  These archaeological efforts followed earlier excavations in the area dating back to 1929.  From these two pits nearly 1,000 artefacts were recovered, including objects made of jade, bronze, gold, ivory, pottery, marble, and implements of bone. 

Roughly 800 artefacts from the pits are bronze, including large and small statues and dozens of life-sized bronze heads, some of which are partially overlaid with gold.  Authorities estimate that these artefacts had been buried for 2,7000 to 4,700 years. 

The archaeologists also recovered pieces of a tall bronze tree, which they cleaned and reassembled.  As with most archaeological discoveries, there is little debate about what has been found.  However there is great debate about the meanings that are attached to the items recovered and their implications.  In particular, “The meaning of the tree has been the subject of disagreement.” 

Indeed, the professional consensus over the years at the Sanxingdui excavations is one of mystery about the origin (and fate) of its inhabitants.  For example, they ask:

“How did the miraculous bronze smelting technique and the culture symbolized by the Sanxingdui bronze ware come into being?”

“The puzzle of Sanxingdui is a puzzle of the ages.” 

Perhaps the Bible can help.

The Bronze Tree stands 3.9m (12.8 feet) tall, rising almost 3.65m (12 feet) from its circular base to the top of its branches.  As such, it is a life-size fruit tree.  Viewed from above, the branches radiate from the central trunk.  When viewed from the side, the branches grow out from the trunk in an upward direction and then arche over in a uniform manner, bending down toward the ground. Each branch terminates in one piece of fruit which is cloaked in ornate, cast-bronze leaves.

Strikingly, the leaves near the fruit on the majority of these branches are cast in the shape of large, menacing knives! 

The tree is inhabited by a large serpent with a long, narrow, snakelike body that is cast so that it undulates to and frow down along the trunk. The serpent is placed head-down in the tree and stands upon the circular base.  Its back is arched so that the head is upright and horizontal.  There are two horns on the top of the head.  Some of the serpent is missing, but the pieces that have been recovered include a tail-like limb that terminates in a long knife, and another short appendage that is cast together with a human hand—the hand is complete with an opposable thumb, anatomically correct rows of knuckles, and detailed fingernails.  Finally, the serpent has small shoulders and front feet on which it stands.  It glares out with large eyes.  There are also nine birds in the tree, one perched atop each branch.

When we compare the Tree of Sanxingdui with the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil described in Genesis 2 and 3, we see they share many distinctive features:

1. The Sanxingdui bronze artists made a large tree—unusual amongst ancient bronze artefacts.  The Genesis narrative of the Fall of Man revolves around a tree.

2. The Sanxingdui Tree is a fruit tree. The artists having determined to make a tree, could have made many different types: a coniferous or deciduous tree; a tall or short one; or a tree of any of the numerous varieties found on the Chengdu plain.  Instead, they chose to make a life-sized fruit tree with life-sized fruit.  The Genesis tree was a fruit tree.

3. The fruit of the Bronze Tree is ‘forbidden’ in artistic style: when casting the leaves that surround the fruit, the artists made the critically important decision to cast many of them in the shape of long knives, which communicate two equally clear messages: ‘Don’t take this fruit!’ and ‘This is deadly!’  The fruit of the Genesis tree was likewise forbidden.

4. The artists have included a fully-detailed serpent in the tree. The Genesis tree also focused on a serpent. 

5. The serpent still has feet on which to walk, and none of the fruit has yet been taken from the tree.  God’s curse upon the serpent in Genesis 3:14 was to ‘crawl’ on his ‘belly’ and ‘eat dust’ implying perhaps that he walked upon legs before the fruit was taken.

6. The serpent has been designed so that it, like the fruit, also appears to be deadly and/or associated with death, being cast with a knife-like tail that is similar in shape to the leaves that surround the fruit.  The Genesis account likewise attributes the origin of death to the woman’s seduction by the serpent and her taking the forbidden fruit. 

7. A human is present at this tree, represented by the human hand that is situated alongside the serpent’s body.  Could this be Eve’s hand at the point where she is listening to the serpent, but not yet having taken the fruit?

When we ponder the combination of these factors, it is clear that the artists have not only created a particular tree, they have also captured a specific moment in time; arguably the second most important moment in human history after creation.  The Sanxingdui Bronze Tree depicts the last moments of human innocence before God.  In the boughs of the tree, we see the forbidden fruit, and none has yet been taken. The serpent that will help bring about the downfall of man is there in its precursed state.  It is symbolized as bringing death, with his knife-like tail.

If the Bronze Tree of Sanxingdui depicts the Genesis Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, what are the logical implications?  While there are a multitude of possible answers to that question, here are a few suggestions. 

The origin of the Sanxingdui People remains a mystery in the secular world, so a Sanxingdui-Genesis nexus certainly helps to explain the mystery. 

In that regard, the relative time periods of the Sanxingdui civilization and the writing of Genesis are important.  It is estimated that the Sanxingdui People thrived over a period of 2,000 years between 2,800 BC and 800 BC. So the Bronze Tree must have been created during that time period.  In addition, the date of the Mosaic authorship of Genesis is generally held to be 1450 BC.

If the Bronze tree was created before Moses wrote (which is likely) and independently of his writings (which is almost certain), we are faced with another question:  How did the Sanxingdui People come to know about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? 

It seems that the Sanxingdui People shared the same ancestral traditions as those people from whom God called Abram and created the nation of Israel.  Genesis 11 supports this notion, as it records the confounding of the languages of man and the dispersion of mankind from the Tower of Babel to the various parts of the earth.  The account of the dispersion indicates that the people were at that time one people with one language.  Although God confounded their language, they retained a common technology and a common heritage with common ancestral traditions, which included the events surrounding the Fall of mankind that occurred at the foot of the tree.

If the Bronze Tree was created before Moses wrote Genesis, or if it was created independently of his inspired writing, the Scriptures have an unbiased ‘triangulation’ in this artefact which complements the Genesis account in intimate detail.  At the heart of what the world here calls a ‘mystery,’ we may well have a great treasure—the Bronze Tree of Sanxingdui may be the oldest known man-made Genesis artefact.  [End of quote]

The critics who attribute this archaeological find to “legend” and “myth” should consider that another Chinese legend and myth has come knocking at academia’s door demanding recognition.  The following excerpts are from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “The 6,000s (Part 9: The Conclusion):”

Ancient Chinese accounts of their beginnings speak of a catastrophic flood that threatened the heavens from which a Noah-like hero emerges.  This hero is God’s conduit for the salvation of mankind. This event, according to the publications listed below, happened some 4,000 years ago.

Headline, August, 4, 2016, New York Times: “Scientific Evidence of Flood May Give Credence to Legend of China’s First Dynasty.”  Headline, August 5, 2016, UK Telegraph: “First Evidence of Legendary China Flood May Rewrite History.”  Headline, August 4, 2016, Washington Post: “Legends Say China Began in a Great Flood.  Scientists Just Found Evidence that the Flood Was Real.”  Headline, August 4, 2016, ScienceMag.org: “Massive Flood May Have Led to China’s Earliest Empire.” 

The flood in the days of Noah took place approximately 4,372 years ago. [End of quote]

Certainly there was a Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the eating of the forbidden fruit of this tree certainly opened the door for the utterly consumptive law of sin and death, scientifically known as the Second Law of Thermodynamics.  It is true because God said so.  According to the Genesis account, this tree—like the Tree of Life—is not removed from the earth.  And like the Tree of Life, are there remnants of its legacy hidden in plain view?  GodSaidManSaid can’t certify the perfect candidate, but I can think of one that projects the idea well: the marijuana tree.  Marijuana is known as the “gateway drug” that has opened the door to ruin and doom for untold millions.  Consider this excerpt from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Instant Genius:”

The headline from England’s Daily Mail, concerning the use of marijuana reads, "Smoking Just One Cannabis Joint Raises Danger of Mental Illness by 40%." The following excerpts are from that article:

With up to 40 per cent of teenagers and young adults in the UK believed to have tried cannabis, the researchers estimate that the drug could be behind 14 per cent of cases of schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses.

Research completed by leading psychiatrist Professor Robin Murray in 2005 showed that those who smoked the drug regularly at 18 were 1.6 times more likely to suffer serious psychiatric problems, including schizophrenia, by their mid-20s.

For those who were regular users at 15, the stakes were even higher, with their risk of mental illness by the age of 26 being 4.5 times greater than normal. [End of quote]

If you carry the numbers forward globally, in the camp of the disobedient, those negatively affected would be into the hundreds of millions.

In the camp of the obedient, those negatively affected: zero.  Not IQ, but GQ (God Quotient).  [End of quotes]

Famed ancient historian Flavius Josephus wrote the following in his Antiquities of the Jews concerning Eve and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil:

Now when she had tasted of that tree, and was pleased with its fruit, she persuaded Adam to make use of it also.  Upon this they perceived that they were become naked to one another; and being ashamed thus to appear abroad, they invented somewhat to cover them; for the tree sharpened their understanding. [End of quote]

I must be fully persuaded.  Everything depends upon it.  Can I trust my majority-text Holy Bible?  Was Genesis, the first book of the Bible, penned by Moses but authored by God?  Is the 6-day creation account, Paradise, Adam & Eve, immortality, Noah & the ark, the Tower of Babel, Sodom & Gomorrah—is it all true after all?  Yes, of course it is, but whose report will you believe?

GOD SAID, Genesis 2:9:

And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

GOD SAID, Genesis 2:17:

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

GOD SAID, Genesis 3:1-3:

1 Now the serpent was more subtle 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:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

MAN SAID: If the Bible was authored by God, why doesn’t Genesis, the first book of it, dazzle us with God-inspired truths?  I mean, think about it: The idea that God created all things with His spoken Word is ludicrous!  A big explosion out of nothing makes so much more sense. 

 

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

Blumner, R., Free Inquiry

GodSaidManSaid, “Instant Genius”

GodSaidManSaid, “Snake Legs & the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil”

GodSaidManSaid, “The 6,000s (Part 9: The Conclusion)”

GodSaidManSaid, “Was There a Garden of Eden?—Yes! (The Genesis Series, Part 12)”

• Go Further With Christ
• Email To a Friend
• Comments or Questions?