Hi Patti C and all the Doves....Patti is doing a great study on the trees in the Garden!  You totally bring up that there is so much to study.  A person could take just ONE tiny piece of the Bible and do a study on it that would take years.  Someone should try the one on what really happened between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2....I'm still working on that one.  Usually I don't bring that up because those who don't "read between the lines" have no understanding of the complete picture.  None of us will until we face Jesus and ask Him.  Some things we aren't meant to know....but if God put it in the Bible, we are to search out the truth.

I did a study on the Garden of Eden as well, and why that first sin was such a horrible thing in God's viewpoint.  It doomed an entire civilization. Was it disobedience?  It had to be MORE than that....and I have read that the two trees were not exactly "two trees", eit! her.   God does use symbolism like "bread" "water", "wine", "oil", etc. as being symbolic of something else....and He wants us to find as much as possible about the truth.

This is a real "doozey"!!!  It's just about "X" rated, and it's not for "babes'....only a "meat eater" can handle it.  I was going to specify "not for anyone under 21", but in today's society they are giving sex education to first graders now.  So anyone not wanting to know that the "seed" is an underlying story of the whole bible might not want to read this:

http://theopenscroll.com/cainsPaternity.htm

Please, no comments about how "awful" I am to bring this up.  God wouldn't have put common sense into our thinking if He didn't want us to think of this aspect of the "generations".  Whether I agree with it or not is mine to ! keep to myself...but I'm putting it out there for others as well.

YsiC,

Arlene