themselves, we will give an answer from him, although we will still give it
as if it were our own.
“A tree means a human being,” they said. “Its fruit means the good
done by that human being’s life. Therefore the tree of life means some-
one who lives from God. Because love and wisdom, along with goodwill
and faith—or rather, goodness and truth—are God’s life in us, the tree
of life means people who have those things from God and who have eter-
nal life as a result. Much the same thing is meant by the tree of life from
which people were allowed to eat (Revelation 2 : 7 ; 22 : 2 , 14 ).
[ 17 ] “The tree of the knowledge of good and evil means those who
believe that they live on their own rather than from God—that the love
and wisdom and the goodwill and faith—or again, the goodness and
truth—that are in them are their own and not God’s. They believe this
because the likeness and appearance of their thinking, intending, speak-
ing, and acting on their own is completely convincing. Because they use
this appearance to convince themselves that they are in fact God, there-
fore the serpent said, ‘God knows that on the day you eat some of the
fruit of that tree, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God,
knowing good and evil’ (Genesis 3 : 5 ).
[ 18 ] “Eating from those trees means accepting and internalizing. Eat-
ing from the tree of life means accepting eternal life. Eating from the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil means accepting damnation. The ser-
pent means the Devil, which is loving ourselves and having pride in our
own intelligence. Love for ourselves owns the latter tree. If we have pride
because we love ourselves, we are trees of the knowledge of good and evil.
“It is horrendously wrong, then, to believe that Adam was wise and
did what was good on his own, and that this was what was pure about his
state. Adam himself was in fact cursed because of that very belief. That is
what it means to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and
that is why Adam fell at that time. His earlier state had been pure because
then he believed he was wise and was doing what was good with God’s
help and in absolutely no respect on his own. This is what it means to eat
from the tree of life. The only person who ever became wise on his own
and did what was good on his own was the Lord while he was in the
world, because divinity itself was in him and was his from birth. That is
how he became the Redeemer and Savior by his own power.”
[ 19 ] From these points the participants drew the following conclusion:
“The meaning of the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, and eating from those trees is as follows: Our life is God in us. With
§48 god the creator & creation 73