SEED, FRUIT, AND FOOD

FOR DONNA AND ALL DOVES:

HELLO ALL!!

I left this part out of my study of the TWO TREES, because I did not want it to be too long.  But, after reading the letter from Donna, I decided to include it now.  Hope that you can see where it fits in.  And Donna, I hope it answers some of your questions. Thank you all for taking the time to let me know your thoughts on what I discovered. Bless you all!!

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TWO TREES, (CON'T)

Why did Adam and Eve choose this fruit over the fruit of the Tree of Life?  We will find out as we take a look at the third party involved in their temptation, the Serpent, the father of lies, which includes the very first and the very Biggest Lie.  Yet, before we do that, we need to look at a few more words to complete our understanding of these two trees.  There are three words, which are the byproducts of these trees: “seed”, “fruit’, and “food”.  We will examine these words in that order, the order that they appear in Genesis.

 

Seed

The word “seed” has only one definition in the whole of the Old Testament.  We find that definition is H-2233.

Strong’s Concordance, page 1494, H-2233 states:                                zera’; from H-2232; seed; figuratively fruit, plant, sowing time, posterity:--carnally, child, fruitful, seed, seedtime.

  

H-2232 states:   zara’; a primitive root; to sow; figuratively to disseminate, plant, fructify:--bear; conceive seed, set with, sow, sower, and yield.

The very first time this word is used in the Bible is in the first chapter of Genesis, on the third day of creation, which of course takes place before the Fall.

Genesis 1:12

“And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”

 

These next two verses take place after Satan tempts Eve in the Garden:

Genesis 3:15

“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel.”

Genesis 4:25 (This verse takes place after Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden.)

“And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel who Cain slew.” 

 

Now, let us take a look at what the definition for the word “seed” in the New Testament, where once again it is the most common meaning of the word.

Strong’s Concordance; page 1670, G-4690 states:

sperma;  from G-4687 (which means ‘something sown’, i.e. seed; including the male sperm); by implication ‘offspring’; specifically a ‘remnant’ (figuratively as if kept over for planting):--issue, seed.

 

Here are a couple of examples of this usage from the New Testament.  The first example we find is in the book of Romans, and the second is in the book of Revelation:

Romans 11:1

“I say then, Hath God cast away his people?  God forbid.  For I also am an Israelite,, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.”

Revelation 12:17

“And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

 

The use of the word “seed” in these verses point to there being two very different kinds of seed.  The seed of trees and plants, created before man, (as mentioned in Gen.1:12) and the seed of animals and man, “sperm”, (as mentioned in Gen.3:15, and Gen.4:25).  It is also quite obvious that there are two seed lines that spring from two very different trees, and these seed lines will be at odds with each other throughout the rest of the Bible.

Now we will look into what kind of “fruit” might have come from these seeds.

 

Fruit

The definition for this word, in the Old Testament, is the most common.  We find this definition in H-6529.

Strong’s Concordance; page 1560, H-6529 states:

peri; from H-6509, a primitive root ‘para’; to bear fruit ( literal or figurative) :-- bough, fruit, firstfruit, fruitful, reward.

The most common usage and definition in the New Testament is found to be G-2590.

Strong’s Concordance; page 1638, G-2590 states:

karpos;  probably from the base of G-726 which means ‘fruit’ (as plucked), literally or figuratively:-- fruit.

This is a very basic definition and is used throughout the New Testament, yet upon investigation, there is one definition of this word that is only used once in the New Testament, and it seems to have the opposite meaning.  In this particular verse, Jude is speaking about a certain kind of men, that he calls ‘brute beasts’.  Let’s look at that verse, and find this very specific meaning.

 

Jude 1:12

“These are spots on your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots.”

 

The meaning of this fruit is found in G-175, a special definition used only in this verse.

Strong’s Concordance; page 1601, G-175 states:

akarpos;  from G-1, meaning ‘the first’ (as a negative particle) and from G-2590; ‘barren’ (literally or figuratively):--without fruit, unfruitful.

 

Ah, this is becoming clearer.  We see two kinds of seeds that produce two kinds of fruit, and it may even be safe to assume that they are from the two trees, mentioned above.  Before we complete this chapter, let us look into one more word.  We know that ‘fruit’ becomes ‘food’.  Will there be two different types of ‘food’ produced from these two trees?  Let’s find out.

 

Food

When we investigate the word ‘food’ in the Old Testament, we find that it has a very specific meaning.  This particular type meaning is used only 5 times in the entire Old Testament, and 3 of them are found in Genesis, in Gen 2:9, 3:6, and 6:21. 

We will not look at the Greek words, this time, because the definition simply means “nourishment” in the New Testament.  For our immediate purposes, here, we will look at the first two verses in Genesis, which have to do with the “two trees” in our study.  We already know that the same meaning applies to these verses, so let us take a look at this meaning as given in H-3978.

Strong’s Concordance; page 1521, H-3978 states:

ma akal;  from H-398 which means to ‘devour’; eatable (including provender, flesh and fruit):--food, fruit, meat, bakemeats, victual.

The trees, in the Garden of Eden, produced fruit, filled with its own seed, and this fruit becomes “food” for the “man” the Lord created. 

Genesis 2:9

“And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

 

We already looked into this verse at the beginning of this chapter in regards to the two trees in the Garden.  We know that the Lord placed these two trees within (in the midst of) before he placed Adam there.  Let’s look at the other verse.

Genesis 3:6

“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her; and he did eat.”

 

Food, for spiritual, flesh and bone nourishment, is the final by product of the trees that God created.  The above verse takes place at a crucial time in Genesis.  Eve has just committed a major offense by eating of the one tree that she knew the Lord had forbidden, and then compounding that offense by giving it to Adam, also to eat. 

I would like to include here a few very important verses, from the Book of Isaiah, that describes what kind of trees ‘born again Christians’ represent.  This will also help us to understand what takes place in the Garden of Eden.

Isaiah 61: 1-3

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint to them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.”

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Agape!!!

Patti C.