The Art of Life Bible - Flipbook - Page 14
Genesis
Apricot
27
Prunus armeniaca
Read Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7,
especially 2:16-17.
We cannot identify with certainty
the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, and it is probably not
among the fruit trees we know
today. (This is also true of the
tree of life mentioned in 3:22-24.)
But people love to speculate and
have traditionally identified the
forbidden fruit with the apple.
Historians have more recently
questioned the presence of
apples in the ancient Middle East,
and apricots have been given as
another possibility.
Apricots grow on a tree from the
rose family, and the most common
cultivated varieties possibly descended from the Armenian plum.
The tree can grow up to forty feet
tall and bears white or light pink
flowers in early spring before
developing its leaves. The apricot
fruit is a velvety two to three-inch
fruit with firm, yellow flesh that
covers a stony seed.
Whatever the identity of these
special trees and their fruits, God
shows us through this Genesis
account that his plan all along was
for humanity to have eternal life,
and that this life on earth was to
be lived in communion with God.
Even though access to the tree of
life in Eden was lost because of
sin, God has since been at work
to restore eternal life to humanity
through the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus.
2
So God created human beings* in his own
image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed
the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil.
10A river flowed from the land of Eden, watering the
garden and then dividing into four branches. 11 The first
branch, called the Pishon, flowed around the entire land
of Havilah, where gold is found. 12 The gold of that land
is exceptionally pure; aromatic resin and onyx stone
are also found there. 13 The second branch, called the
Gihon, flowed around the entire land of Cush. 14 The
third branch, called the Tigris, flowed east of the land
of Asshur. The fourth branch is called the Euphrates.
15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden
to tend and watch over it. 16 But the Lord God warned
him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the
garden—17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to
be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”
19 So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild
animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to
the man* to see what he would call them, and the man
chose a name for each one. 20 He gave names to all the
livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals.
But still there was no helper just right for him.
21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep
sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one
of the man’s ribs* and closed up the opening. 22 Then the
Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought
her to the man.
23 “At last!” the man exclaimed.
28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful
and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over
the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the
animals that scurry along the ground.”
29 Then God said, “Look! I have given you every
seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the
fruit trees for your food. 30And I have given every
green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds
in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along
the ground—everything that has life.” And that is
what happened.
31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he
saw that it was very good!
And evening passed and morning came, marking
the sixth day.
So the creation of the heavens and the earth
and everything in them was completed. 2 On the
seventh day God had finished his work of creation,
so he rested* from all his work. 3And God blessed
the seventh day and declared it holy, because it
was the day when he rested from all his work of
creation.
2
4 This is the account of the creation of the heavens and
the earth.
The Man and Woman in Eden
When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,
5 neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the
earth. For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water
the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil.
6 Instead, springs* came up from the ground and watered
all the land. 7 Then the Lord God formed the man from
the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into
the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.
8 Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the
east, and there he placed the man he had made. 9 The
Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the
ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced
“This one is bone from my bone,
and flesh from my flesh!
She will be called ‘woman,’
because she was taken from ‘man.’”
24 This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into
one.
25 Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they
felt no shame.
1:27 Or the man; Hebrew reads ha-adam.
2:2 Or ceased; also in 2:3. 2:6 Or
mist.
2:19 Or Adam, and so throughout the chapter. 2:21 Or took a part of the
man’s side.
6
creation_bible.indb 6
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