We do not know exactly what plant, of all the plants available to them,
that Adam and Eve ate of, while in the Biblical "Garden of Eden"
(Genesis 3:6).
It has been suggested that it was a fruit that Eve partook of, perhaps
an apple, which certainly shows a certain amount of Euoro-centrism.
However that may be, if it was a tree, it may have been a fig tree,
similar to the "Bodhi Tree" of Indian Buddhist legend - the sacred ficus
religiosus.
The sacred tree in Micronesian mythology is the banana tree, whose
origin is tied up in the idea of "manna" and the myth of the "Tree of
Plenty" and the mythology of the the dying and rising tree spirit.
Why Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat of this one particular tree is
somewhat of a metaphysical mystery, not fully explained. The question
is, why would God enslave Adam and Eve to work on a fruit farm in the
first place?
Go figure.
On 10/17/2013 10:20 PM, [email protected] wrote:
*Thanks, this is great. For the moment, one question: "The expulsion
from the Garden and from the Tree of Life was an act of love and not
vengeance so that humanity would not 'become immortal in sin.'" What
does "immortal in sin" mean, and how would that happen?*
*emptybill wrote:*
Read this and then see if you have questions.
http://www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/orthodoxy/articles/ancestral_versus_original_sin
