Fruits of the Two Trees

The Tree of Life stood in the midst of the Garden of Eden. Of that Tree Adam and Eve could freely eat. Apparently the fruit thereon was less appealing, as it is today, so they ate of the "other tree". That same Tree of Life is still standing, still in paradise, on the same river it always stood:

Revelation 22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Where is the Garden of Eden? No one has found it. Why? I believe because it is no longer there! Just as Jesus ascended to heaven, in the beginning the Garden must have as well.  The Garden wasn't natural. It was immortal just as Adam and Eve were while they were in it. They died! The Garden did not. In fact, it could not because it was guarded by Cherubim.

Christians think of the trees of the Garden bearing natural fruit. There were many trees in the Garden, and of those, they could freely eat. They surely bore natural and good fruit because they were made by God. The one tree of which they could not eat bore much fruit. It  was good for food, pleasant to the eye and would make one wise.

On the other hand, below I attempt to identify many of the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge:

Mark 7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed (1) evil thoughts, (2) adulteries, (3) fornications, (4) murders, 22 (5)Thefts, (6) covetousness, (7) wickedness, (8) deceit, (9)lasciviousness, an (10) evil eye, (11) blasphemy, (12) pride, (13) foolishness: 23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

Galatians 5:18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; (2) Adultery, (3) fornication, (14) uncleanness, (9) lasciviousness, 20 (15) Idolatry, (16) witchcraft, (17) hatred, (18) variance, (19) emulations, (20) wrath, (21) strife, (22) seditions, (23) heresies, 21 (6) Envyings, (24) murders, (25) drunkenness, (26) revellings, and such like...

1 Peter 4:3 For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in (9) lasciviousness, (27) lusts, ((25) excess of wine, (26) revellings, (27) banquetings, and (28) abominable idolatries...

Leviticus 18:22 Thou shalt not (29) lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

In Leviticus 18 we find also (29) voyeurism and (30) bestiality. In Deuteronomy 27 and 1 Corinthians 5 we find (31) incest forbidden. 

Revelation 21:8 But the (32) fearful, and (33) unbelieving, and the (28) abominable, and (24) murderers, and (34) whoremongers, and (35) sorcerers, and (36) idolaters, and all (37) liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

From 2 Timothy 1 we also find (38) belief in false doctrines, and (39) faith in ancestors.

From Hosea 4 there we find (40) whoredom and (41) rejection of the knowledge of God.

From 2 Kings 21:6 (42) necromancers and (43) mediums are identified.

I have quickly identified 43 fruits of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Add to that (44) false wisdom from the original temptations, and it's an even number. I bet the list goes on but I'm getting lazy - perhaps another fruit! No wonder it's so easy to disobey! The cornucopia of fruit released with original sin is plentiful in number. On the other hand, the fruit of the Tree of Life is only twelve, but they are gracious and powerful fruits!

Let us look at the fruits of the Tree of Life:

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is (1) love, (2) joy, (3) peace, (4) longsuffering, (5) gentleness, (6) goodness, (7) faith, 23 (8) Meekness, (9) temperance: against such there is no law.

Here we only find nine fruits of the Spirit but Revelation mentions twelve. What are the other three? There are several candidates:

2 Peter 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith (6) virtue; and to virtue (10) knowledge; 6 And to knowledge (9) temperance; and to temperance (4) patience; and to patience (11) godliness; 7 And to godliness (5) brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness (12) charity. 

Hence, the twelve gifts of the Spirit!

In the Catholic Bible - the Latin Vulgate, twelve fruits of the Spirit (instead of nine) are listed. Let's compare:

fruits: (1) charity, (2) joy, (3) peace, (4) patience, (5) kindness, (6) goodness, (12) generosity, (?)gentleness, (7) faithfulness, (?) modesty, (9) self-control, and (8) chastity.

Note that charity has two meanings: love and giving or generosity. I have taken the liberty of aligning charity in one passage to love, and in another to generosity. Not knowing Latin nor Greek, I take that liberty.

For the fruits to align, modesty would have to correlate with knowledge - using it without pride. Likewise, gentleness and godliness would have to be the same. I submit that they are close. Within both versions, then, we identify the twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit.

It is to be noted that these twelve completely overpower the numerous fruits of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Those fruits can all be sensed and enjoyed. Hence, they are of the flesh and are in the world.

On the other hand, the twelve fruits are low-hanging but when Adam looked at the Tree, they were not visible to him. Neither do we sense them but we know what they are because Christians experience them!

I see the Garden just as I see God: It is there in body (physically; the natural - what we sense), in the mind ( we know it's real), and in Spirit (because it has fruits which are unseen). The mind, according to scripture, takes the natural to validate the unseen (Romans 1:20).

The Tree of Life is symbolic of Jesus Christ because the leaves of His Tree was for "the healing of nations". That was Jesus's purpose - to provide eternal live to whosoever (John 3:16) by "healing" them of sin.