I see it that the trees were at the same time literal, real, and symbolic - as much of the Old Testament.
The Tree of Life meant relationship with God; to eat of it would bring Adam into a relationship with God where God’s life - eternal life, spiritual life - entered Adam.
The Tree of the KNOWLEDGE of good and evil - not only forbidden, but which included the penalty of death - was separation from God AND separation from LIFE (death being the opposite of life).
The Tree of Life is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. To partake of Him is to partake of eternal life, utter and total dependence on God, trusting not in our own wisdom, knowledge, strength - our own anything.
To partake of the Tree of Knowledge is indeed to choose dependence on self and it’s abilities (independence) - which are indeed great only because man was created in His image. BUT, the end is death - separation from God.
Sadly, much of Christianity - while verbally saying it believes in the Christ - by its actions shows that it is still not only depending on the Tree of Knowledge, but promoting its ways in all of its practices. Thus, the “life” does not match the words - because the origin is the wrong tree. “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives LIFE.”
The two trees stand before each of us every day. Of which will we partake?
Dependence on our own knowledge (which may be wholly true, but is still trust in one’s self)? Or utter and total dependence on God, our Lord and Savior, and the Holy Spirit? The choice is ours not only daily, but moment-by-moment. II Corin. 12:7-10. Paul needed the thorn only because his true weakness was his great intellect and knowledge, and his past history of depending on that knowledge and intellect. Thus he wrote, “Knowledge puffs up (makes one arrogant, feeds pride); love edifies.”
But this is just the way I see it, and I know that “I see through a glass darkly...”
arlis
Why do you think God made those trees, when He knew what Adam and Eve’s choices would be?