The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden had a fruit forbidden to Adam and Eve on threat of death for eating it. They both ate of it and died. We understand their spirits within them died immediately, but their bodies did not die for many years. In Adam’s case he lived physically for nine hundred thirty years before he died. Their souls were condemned to die in ultimate separation from God in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone. Jesus Christ, having taken on the likeness of sinful flesh, has taken the condemnation of death upon Himself for all who will accept that sacrifice of Himself.
Fruit and Death
Theologians generally believe that it was not the forbidden fruit itself that caused death. They teach that it was the act of disobeying God that gave them experiential knowledge of good of good and evil and thus made them sinners. I believed this for years. But how is it that sin and death passed on to all of Adam descendants “who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression”? The evidence strongly suggests that sin and death has passed onto Adam’s descendants genetically. And if that is through physical, genetic change(s), then almost surely the physical fruit had a physical, biological effect upon Adam which was then passed on genetically to all descendants.
After Adam had sinned, God was very concerned to keep them from eating from the tree of life. That tree God will place on earth again in the new earth. But what about the forbidden tree? There was apparently no continuing reason to keep man from that. So is it still growing on earth? Of all the kinds of fruit on earth, Scripture only singles out one fruit with various prohibitions and warnings. That surely makes it a candidate as the once (and now sometimes) forbidden fruit.
Blood and Sin
Furthermore, Scripture sets forth a strong relationship between blood and sin. Blood is the life of the flesh in which sin dwells. It is only blood that can atone for sin, but only blood that is not itself contaminated with sin. Scripture also sets forth a strong relationship between blood and juice from the fruit that is singled out as dangerous. There are too many clues in Scripture about what happened when Adam ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil for us to be ignorant concerning that. These slides, The Blood of the Grape, systematically examine those Scriptural clues and make logical deductions for the purpose of setting forth doctrine that matches the Scriptural evidence.