DID YOU KNOW?
The answer
So they could not reach the tree of life and live forever. God says, "now they might reach out their hands and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever" (Genesis 3:22), and sends them out in the next verse. The tree named here is the tree of life, not the tree they ate from. Cherubim, winged guardian creatures, and a flaming sword then guard the way to it (Genesis 3:24).
Why it’s interesting
The New Oxford Annotated Bible, a study Bible, reads this as a brief chance at living forever, which the sending out closes for good. Michael Coogan and Cynthia Chapman, two Bible scholars, say the tree of life would have let them live forever and made them fully divine, like gods.
Scholarly consensus
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