So, I came
across a sub-stack publication called Wise Wolf in which a young woman by the
name of Lily-Rose Dawson wrote a piece in which she makes the absurd claim that
the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from which God had told
Adam and Eve not to eat from was actually the flesh of human beings that were
being produced by the tree. Her claim is
based upon the fact that scripture doesn’t tell us as to what kind of fruit was
being produced by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but before I go
further into that she starts her article by claiming that: “The Garden of Eden
story is one of humanity’s most foundational myths.” [1]
Did anyone catch
that? She called the Garden of Eden story a myth rather than actual history and
I don’t think she really understands the ramifications that holds for the rest
of what she has written because as in stating that the Garden of Eden is a
myth, she is saying that there was no literal Adam and Eve, no actual fall of
man in the garden, and no actual forbidden fruit for them to eat that caused
the fall and therefore placing death before sin entered into man and the curse
that fell upon all of creation due to man’s transgression in the garden in
eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from which
they were warned of God not to eat from lest they surely die. (Gen. 2:16-17,
3:3)
If the Garden of
Eden is a myth, then the rest of her article becomes pointless speculation and
a waste of time because if you take away Adam and Eve and the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, you take away the fall of man as well which means
that death is not a consequence of sin and neither is the curse because there
is no curse. Things have always been as
they are now. That would mean that there
has always been death and there has always been suffering as is believed by the
atheists and evolutionists and not only does this undermine the rest of what
Lily-Rose Dawson writes, worst of all, it undermines confidence in the
authority of scripture and belief in the Gospel message which preaches
salvation and redemption in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But if the
Garden of Eden is relegated to myth, then you take away all basis for
redemption because there is really nothing to be redeemed from if death is
placed before sin because it is written that the wages of sin is death (Rom.
6:23) and in order for death to be the wages of sin, sin has to come before
death which means the transgression which brought both into the world had to
have come before sin which then had to have come before death but if death did
not come before sin which causes death, then what was there for Jesus to redeem
us from?
What then would
have been the point of His death and resurrection?
What then is
there to liberate creation from if all that which is associated with the curse
that came upon it due to Adam and Eve’s transgression was in the world before
they had eaten of that forbidden fruit?
And what is
there to redeem mankind from if all the tendencies that are the product of an
inherently corrupt nature resided within him before the transgression?
If the
tendencies towards sinful and wicked behavior were already present within man
before the transgression that caused sin to enter into him, then what is there
to condemn him for?
And if there is
nothing by which man can be condemned, then there is nothing from which he must
be redeemed which would make the death and resurrection of Jesus a pointless
endeavor.
But in order for
the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to serve the purpose that the Gospel
of salvation preaches, there has to be something that His death and
resurrection redeems and liberates us from; something that was never a part of
God’s initial design but came into the world as a consequence of a fateful act
of disobedience and it is only if the Genesis account of creation and origins
is actual history and not a myth and if the Genesis account of creation is
actual history, then that makes Adam and Eve actual persons from whom all of
mankind descend, that makes the Garden of Eden a place that once existed, and
that makes the tree of the knowledge of good and evil a tree that had existed
at one time and which produced a fruit not fit for human consumption which
means that the fateful act of disobedience committed by Adam and Eve actually
happened which then caused the world that God had created to turn from the once
good and perfect world that God had intended, into the fallen and dying state that
it is in now in which death and suffering abound and it was through this act of
disobedience that sin entered into Adam and Eve, which then was passed down to
all of mankind who descend from them (Rom. 5:12) and as a consequence causes
all who are born to die because of sin (Rom. 6:23) just as Adam and Eve had
died because of the sin that entered into them (Gen. 3:19) and not only does
sin cause the death of the physical body, but it also creates a separation
between God and man that otherwise would not be and this separation not only
has ramifications for the course of life, but even worse, it has ramifications for
eternity as well because a sinless God cannot allow that which is in sin into
His Kingdom lest His Kingdom be defiled by the taint of sin, just as the earth
has been defiled, but the consequences of sin do not stop at mankind, but a
curse has also come upon the rest of creation due to Adam’s disobedience which
is why it is written that the entire creation groans and travails in pain to
this day (Rom. 8:19-22) and it is because of the curse that has come upon it
because of sin that the creation is subject to death, decay, and all every kind
of suffering, hardship, and misery that there ever has been or could be and if
an act of disobedience caused man to be subjugated to sin and death and has
caused him, due to sin within him, to be estranged from his Maker, has
endangered his soul to eternal damnation, and has subjected the creation to a
curse, then it is by an act of redemption, beginning with man, that all of
creation will be made free and this redemption is given to us by the grace and
mercy of God who, in His immense love for man whom He has created, is not
willing that any should perish and be eternally damned but that all would come
to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9) and it is in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior by
whom He has provided redemption by way of His death upon the cross on which He
was crucified and after having purchased our redemption by the shedding of His
blood, He was then raised again from the dead so that we by faith in Him will
be justified in Him (Rom. 4:25) and with that redemption and the cleansing of
the soul from sin we reconciled to the Father from whom we had once been
estranged (2 Cor. 5:18) and inwardly transformed and made anew (2 Cor. 5:17)
and it is this inward cleansing of the soul and this regeneration which cause
all who are willing to call upon Christ for it, submit to it, and embrace it to
no longer desire to follow after selfish and worldly pursuits but after those things
that pertain to the Kingdom of Heaven, (Mt. 6:33)
to no longer
take pleasure in those things that are evil and displeasing in the sight of the
Lord, but in that which is good, right, and pleasing in His sight,
to no longer
desire to walk in the lies of this present world, but only in the truth that
comes from Christ Almighty, (Jn. 14:6) no longer placing our hopes in the
things of this present world, but looking forward to that new and better world
to come, (Rev. 21-22)
to no longer
rely on worldly resources, men, or even our own power, abilities, skills, and
wisdom for our needs and provision but upon God who is able to meet all of our
needs, (Mt. 6:25-33) recognizing that the resources of this world and even the
people He brings into our lives are but instruments and vessels through which
God meets our needs and that the skills, power, knowledge, and wisdom by which
we might acquire our provision are provided and instilled in us by God,
to no longer
fear what men can do to us, but rather fearing the God before whom we will have
to one day give an account for how we lived our lives, (Mt. 10:28)
to no longer
look to corruptible institutions within our society for direction and order in
our lives but to God who, by His written Word has given us laws and precepts to
be applied to our lives and which serve to produce and maintain an ordered
life, and who, by His Holy Spirit which comes to dwell within us upon
repentance, establishes in our lives a course and direction in our lives to
pursue for His glory,
to no longer
seek our own glory but the glory of God,
to no longer
rally behind corruptible men, but instead behind the incorruptible God in
Heaven bearing in mind that those men and women God raises up for our
edification are but instruments and servants of His for that respective purpose
to which He has called them,
to no longer
seek to align ourselves with the things of darkness but only with the things of
the light,
to no longer
trust in the wisdom of the world but only on the wisdom and knowledge that
comes from above, (Jas. 1:5) nor depend on corruptible earthly authorities to
swiftly administer justice, but only in the power of God to deliver us from
evil.
And just as our
souls have been redeemed and saved from eternal damnation, so also shall we be
liberated from bodily death when these bodies into which we are born and live
are transformed from that which is corruptible into that which is incorruptible
and into forms in which dwells no sin (1 Cor. 15:51-55, 1 Thess. 4:13-18) and
finally, creation itself will be liberated from the curse that came upon
because of sin when it is made anew into a new and better world in which there
is no sin, no death, nor any curse but only peace, love, joy, happiness, light,
and life before the Lord God Almighty just as He had intended it to be in the
beginning when He created the world. (Rev. 21-22)
But despite
calling the Garden of Eden a myth at the beginning of her piece Lily-Rose
Dawson goes on to write about the garden of Eden as a place that once existed
and the events that took place therein as events that actually happened; in
other words, Dawson goes from calling the Garden of Eden a myth to depicting it
as historical fact and so there really is no telling what Dawson actually
believes regarding the Genesis account of creation and origins as it seems as
though she is contradicting herself in that regards; first calling the Garden
of Eden a myth, and from there on writing about the event as a place that
actually existed and the events associated with it as actual history and upon
reading most of the article, it would seem as though she might believe the
Genesis account of creation as being actual history instead of a myth, but her
opening statements muddy her stance either way, but even if she believes the
Genesis account of creation and origins overall to be actual history, and this
is what she would have to believe in order for the rest of what she writes to
have any credibility in the eyes of the reader, she still falls into egregious
error due to speculation as to the kind of fruit was produced by the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. Her
premise for the claims that she makes regarding the forbidden fruit are as
follows:
the Bible never
tells us what fruit it was.
Scholars have
assumed apples or pomegranates for centuries, but these are cultural additions.
Genesis itself remains silent. This absence isn’t accidental. When ancient
texts deliberately withhold information this fundamental, it suggests knowledge
too dangerous for common understanding. [2]
While I would
not dispute that assumptions as to what kind of fruit the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil bore have been cultural additions, the argument that we are
not told what kind of fruit was borne by the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil due to that knowledge being too dangerous for common understanding is a
poor argument as we do not know what kinds of fruit the tree of life bears
except that in the book of Revelation, we are told that it bears twelve kinds
of fruit continuously (Rev. 22:2) and neither do we know the types of fruit
that grew in the garden of Eden that Adam and Eve WERE permitted to eat. Are we then to assume that knowledge as to
the types of fruit produced by the tree of life and that of other fruits that
Adam and Eve were allowed to eat is also too dangerous to be revealed?
But the claim of
forbidden knowledge is where Lily-Rose Dawson begins her case that the reason
why Adam and Eve were not permitted to eat the fruit from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil is because men were born from it; she would have us
believe that God intended for men to be born from a tree instead of being the
offspring of Adam and Eve and goes on to claim that the original language of
the Old Testament scriptures, of which the Genesis account of creation and
origins is part, support her theory that this is so:
The original
Hebrew provides a clue that transforms everything. The word perry, translated
as “fruit” in Genesis, carries dual meanings. It refers to fruit of uncertain
origin, yes.
But in ancient
Hebrew, it also means “small child” or “infant.”
This isn’t
metaphorical wordplay. It’s a documented translation that changes the entire
narrative.
Read Genesis 3:5
with this understanding. Satan tells Eve: “For God doth know that in the day ye
eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods, knowing
good and evil.”
What food could
grant godlike knowledge and power? What consumption would be so forbidden that
it severs humanity’s divine connection forever?
The answer
becomes horrifyingly clear: human flesh. [3]
While granted
that scripture does at times refer to babies born as “fruit”, it only does so
in a figurative sense as they are developed inside wombs of women and are born
of them but in the case of the fruit produced by the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, the text suggests no such thing as claimed by Dawson.
According to
Strong’s Concordance, the definitions of the Hebrew word for fruit, as it
pertains to the fruit produced from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
are not in any way connected with human offspring but are connected, in the
literal sense with a tree as the definitions for the word priy or per-ee
are as follows:
“bough, fruit,”
and in a figurative sense “reward” [4]
She then goes on
to state that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil may not have been an
actual tree
Consider the
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil from a different angle. What if “tree” is
mistranslation or metaphor? [5]
The Hebrew word
for “tree” is ets or “ates”, the definitions thereof being are
“carpenter, gallows, helve, pine, plank, staff, stalk, stick, stock, timber,
tree, wood” [6];
most of the definitions being things made of wood which is of a tree.
That being said,
it appears that Dawson, not the translators of scripture, is the one who is
mistaken.
But she doesn’t
stop there. She then goes on to claim
that God did not initially intend for mankind to produce offspring as further
support for her argument that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was
producing babies instead of actual fruit:
God forbids
sexual reproduction (outside of marriage) throughout scripture. Fornication,
adultery, even lustful thoughts receive condemnation. The act itself carries
shame in biblical context. Yet somehow we assume the original humans in
paradise reproduced sexually?
It doesn’t fit…
God’s immediate
curse after the fall includes painful childbirth for women. Why would this
punishment exist if sexual reproduction already occurred in Eden? The curse
introduces a new method of creating life, one involving pain, shame, and the
union of flesh…
Adam and Eve’s
sudden awareness of nakedness makes sense. Before consuming the fruit,
reproduction required no physical intimacy. After? Their bodies became tools
for procreation, and shame followed naturally.
The knowledge of
“good and evil” wasn’t abstract philosophy. It was carnal knowledge.
Understanding reproduction through consumption of flesh, through cannibalism,
opened their eyes to desires, jealousy, violence. All the darkness that
follows. [7]
But if God did
not intend for men and women to be physically and sexually intimate with one
another and to reproduce, then why does He command mankind to be fruitful and
multiply? (Gen. 1:26) Now that doesn’t
make sense and that very command is what makes Dawson’s claims not make any
sense because the command was given before the fall, not after despite Dawson
having us believe otherwise if we are to accept the chronology of events as
written in scripture and
if anyone must ask why Adam and Eve didn’t have any children immediately, it
was due to the committing of that one fateful act of disobedience that delayed
them from reproducing. Even if they had
not eaten of the forbidden fruit, they still would have gone on to reproduce
anyway. After all, what would have been
the point of supplying Adam and Eve with reproductive organs if God never
intended for them to reproduce but only intended for the rest of mankind to be
produced from a tree?
And if it was
intended for the rest of us to be born of a tree, that would have also gone
against what God had created all living things to do and that was to reproduce
after their own respective kinds as is often repeated in the first chapter of
Genesis.
It was also
declared before the transgression that men and women were to become one flesh
within the confines of holy matrimony. (Gen. 2:24) Contrary to what Lily-Rose
Dawson would have us believe, chronologically speaking, it does not sound like
sexual intimacy confined between one man and one woman for life was ever a
product of the curse, but to be a pleasure to be shared between the two of
them.
Neither
childbirth or sexual intimacy in and of themselves are ever counted by
scripture to be products of the curse.
But it is the pain that presently comes with childbearing that is a
product of the curse that came upon women due to Eve’s transgression (Gen. 3:16)
and the same goes with working. “Work”
can be physically hard on the body, exact a toll mentally, not always pleasant,
and can even seem fruitless at times, not because “work” in and of itself is a
bad thing or because God meant it to be hard, but the difficulties and stress
that come with productivity are products of the curse (Gen. 3:17-19) Before the curse, “work” was stress free,
pleasant, and enjoyable as it was initially meant to be
Not only are
Dawson’s claims not supported by the original language, her rendering of the
text stands in opposition to other passages of scripture. She claims that it doesn’t make sense how
there could have been physical intimacy between a man and a woman and
reproduction before the fall since she believes that the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil was producing people but this is what doesn’t make sense:
Why God would
create a tree to produce human beings when He created man himself to produce
offspring as is clearly written towards the end of the first chapter of Genesis?
We may not know
what the purpose of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was supposed to
be and it may never be known to us until we enter into the Kingdom of Heaven,
but when we try to impose upon the text our own theories and opinions, and even
present them as a doctrine, that is when we become led astray by false
doctrines and even heresy and I fear that Dawson’s speculations and claims
about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is just one of many examples
of a false doctrine that has arisen from imposing upon the text that to which it
does not bear witness.
But what I can
agree with Lily-Rose Dawson on is that when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden
fruit is that it changed the world from what God had created it to be into a
world that He did not intend; a world filled with evil, death, suffering, and
spiritual darkness.
When God had
created the world all that was in it, including man, He created everything,
including man to be good and inherently good.
When Adam and
Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, sin entered into them and they became inherently
evil and this inherent corruption of their nature was then passed down to all of
mankind since it is from Adam and Eve from whom we all descend (Rom. 5:12) and
it is this inward corruption that has turned us into that which God did intend
us to be by nature as this inward corruption of our nature which the Bible
calls sin influences not only our actions and even the words that come out of
our mouth, but the very thoughts, motives, and attitudes that influence what we
say and what we do which is why it is written that all have sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God which is moral perfection (Rom. 3:23) and it is due
to sin within us that prevents us from achieving moral perfection that is required
by God of anyone to be admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven and it is due to our
inherently corrupt nature that we are unable to attain Heaven by our own merit;
that is not to say that we are incapable of doing good or unable to choose that
which is good, but even those efforts in the pursuit of that which is good and
right will always be corrupted and tainted by our sinful nature and because our
own merit cannot ever measure up to what God requires, we can only enter into
Heaven by the merit of one who is without sin (2 Cor. 5:21, Heb. 7:26-27) and
that is Jesus Christ our Lord and it is His sinless that made Him the perfect
sacrifice for our sins and it is by Him that we are redeemed from eternal damnation,
will eventually be made free from bodily death, and it is by Him that creation
itself will be liberated from the curse that had come upon it because of sin when
it is made anew into the creation that God had intended in the beginning; one
in which there is no death, no sin, and no evil as all those things will be
eliminated when this present world and this present creation has been done away
with.
But when the day
comes for this present world and all the evil within it to be done away with,
that means that God is going to have eliminate from creation all who have taken
pleasure in sin, darkness, evil, and unrighteousness and they who unrepentantly
remain in their sins and persist in their unbelief have nothing to look forward
to except a Christless eternity in which they are forever separated from God
and subject to an everlasting and unrelenting torment.
If you have not
done already done so and want to be at peace about where you will be spending
eternity, then I urge you reader to call upon the name of Jesus today for the
remission of sins. It is but a sincere
prayer of repentance away:
"Lord Jesus
I need you.
I realize that I
am a sinner
who has fallen
short of the glory of God
and that my
goodness falls short
of your standard
of Moral perfection.
Please forgive
me of all of my sins.
Come into my
heart and into my life
to be the Savior
and Lord of my life.
Make me into the
servant and follower
that you want me
to be.
In your name
Lord Jesus, I pray.
Amen."
Know that God is
not concerned with the words that you use to call upon Him forgiveness, but
with the attitude of your heart and if you have, with all sincerity, have asked
Christ to forgive you of your sins, placing your trust in Him only for your
salvation and in nothing else, then your sins are forgiven and your place in
Heaven is certain.
End notes:
1. Lily-Rose Dawson, “The Forbidden Fruit: What
Eden Really Concealed,” The Wise Wolf, October 1, 2025
https://wisewolfmedia.substack.com/p/the-forbidden-fruit-what-eden-really
2.
Ibid.
3.
Ibid.
4.
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, H 6529, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990;
the original Strong’s Concordance was originally compiled, written, and
published by Dr. James Strong in 1890
5. Dawson,
“The Forbidden Fruit: What Eden Really Concealed,” The Wise Wolf, October 1,
2025
6.
Strong’s Concordance, H 6089
7. Dawson,
“The Forbidden Fruit: What Eden Really Concealed,” The Wise Wolf, October 1,
2025
Scripture
references:
1. Genesis 2:16-17, 3:3
2. Romans 6:23
3. Romans 5:12
4. Genesis 3:19
5. Romans 8:19-22
6. 2 Peter 3:9
7. Romans 4:25
8. 2 Corinthians 5:17
9. 2 Corinthians 5:18
10. John 14:6
11. Revelation 21-22
12. Matthew 6:25-33
13. Matthew 10:28
14. James 1:5
15. 1 Corinthians 15:51-55, 1 Thessalonians
4:13-18
16. Revelation 22:2
17. Genesis 1:26
18. Genesis 2:24
19. Genesis 3:16
20. Genesis 3:17-19
21. Romans 3:23
22. 2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 7:26-27
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