New Truth In The Last Days - True Parents Organization

The Fall of Humankind: Adam and Eve 9
der, adultery, theft, false witness, slander. (Matthew 15:11,19, italics
added)
Isn’t it just a natural or biological fact that a real fruit has to grow on a real
fruit tree? But the tree in the Bible story is a symbolic tree, called the “tree of
the knowledge of good and evil.” Therefore, it only stands to reason that the
fruit which grows on a symbolic tree is also a symbolic fruit, not an apple or a
fig.
The word “fruit” in the Bible is often a sexual symbol, as we see in the Old
Testament in the book of the “Song of Solomon” (later translated as the “Song
of Songs”). King Solomon, who is assumed to have written these romantic
poems, or songs, uses fruit as a euphemism for sexual love and temptation.
As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among
young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet
to my taste. (Song of Solomon 2:3)
Your lips distil nectar, my bride.…Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates
with all choicest fruits. (Song of Solomon 4:11, 13)
Let my beloved come to his garden and eat its choicest fruits. (Song of
Solomon 4:16)
Oh, may your breasts be like clusters of the vine and the scent of your
breath like apples. (Song of Solomon 7:8)
What is the meaning of the other symbols in the story of the Fall? “He
[God] drove out the man [Adam]; and at the east of the Garden of Eden he
placed a flaming sword…to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:24,
italics added) In the New Testament (John 15:5), Jesus refers to himself as a
vine and as the true olive tree. Also, Revelations 2:7 says, “He who has an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who conquers I will
grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” The tree of life
in the Bible therefore is a symbol for a perfected man, one who has fulfilled his
God-given potential to become complete and mature.
There were two trees in the center of the Garden: the “tree of life” and the
“tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” There were also only two humans in
the Garden, Adam and Eve. If the “tree of life” in the Genesis story is a symbol
referring to a perfected Adam, then the other tree would be the symbol for
Eve. In other words, “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” was a repre-