[Milton-L] (no subject)

[James Rovira]

The book of Genesis describes the two trees standing together in the middle
of the garden.  The implication is that both are set apart.  Milton reflects
this tradition in bk 4, as mentioned earlier:

Thence up he flew, and on the Tree of Life,
The middle Tree and highest there that grew,

And then in book 7, the forbidden tree is clearly in the middle of the
garden, right next to the tree of life:

This Paradise I give thee, count it thine
To Till and keep, and of the Fruit to eate:
Of every Tree that in the Garden growes
Eate freely with glad heart; fear here no dearth:
But of the Tree whose operation brings
Knowledg of good and ill, which I have set
The Pledge of thy Obedience and thy Faith,
Amid the Garden by the Tree of Life,

"...amid the Garden by the Tree of Life"

I don't think Milton spent much time on this problem because he didn't see
it as a problem.  The tree of life was the largest tree, planted directly in
the middle of the Garden, the forbidden tree was smaller, but right next to
it.  Difficulties are present only if you picture a normal forest with a
large number of essentially identical trees randomly distributed.  The
Garden of Eden is enclosed by a wall and has a discernible center marked by
the presence of the tallest tree.

I think the specific details of the tree of life being the largest and
central tree contains a more important point -- the choice between obedience
and disobedience was not perfectly equal.  Obedience was visibly
privileged.  Life is visibly privileged over knowledge.

Jim R

On Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 5:27 AM, christy neary <christy.neary at hotmail.com>wrote:

>  HELLO ALL, Still having a problem with Satan ( haven't we all ). How does
> he know exactly which tree is the tree of interdiction? He eavesdrops (
> pardon the pun ) on Adam & Eve's conversation and learns that it is fast by
> the tree of life, but this only narrows it down and does not identify it
> specifically.
> Regards,
> Christy
>
>
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