The Tree Of Life (original version) | Jehovah's Witnesses

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The Jehovah’s Witness literature states that Adam and Eve grew old and died because they became imperfect when they sinned.

Let’s see if Genesis actually teaches that.

In Genesis chapter 2, Yahweh places two trees in the garden:
the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge of good and bad.

Yahweh instructs Adam not to eat from one of them—the tree of knowledge of good and bad.

Yahweh says that Adam will die “in the day”—according to the New World Translation—if he eats from that tree.

The Hebrew translated as “in the day” literally means: on that very day, within the space of that day.

It does not mean “within about 1000 years.”

Yahweh is NOT saying Adam will grow old before he dies.

Yahweh then creates the woman, Eve, from a part of Adam.

Adam and Eve are clearly innocent at this point—but Genesis never tells us that they are perfect.
They clearly have the capacity to disobey Yahweh.

In Genesis chapter 3, it introduces a serpent—a shrewd being.

The serpent tells Eve that eating from the tree of knowledge of good and bad will not cause death,
but will instead give her the knowledge of good and bad—and that this will make her LIKE God.

Importantly, it does not say she will BECOME a god.

In verse 22, Yahweh confirms that the serpent was right about the knowledge of good and bad.

Now—what about the other tree? The one that hasn't been mentioned again?

In the second half of verse 22, we finally learn its purpose.

The tree of life gives immortality.

That’s why Yahweh now specifically prevents Adam and Eve from eating from it—so they do not gain immortality.

One scholarly interpretation of this is, if they had both the knowledge of good and bad, and immortality, they would become fully fledged gods.

Did the serpent lie to Eve about death?

Well—not really.

It wasn’t the act of disobeying Yahweh that directly caused their mortality.
It was the fact that they were not allowed to eat from the tree of life.

If Adam and Eve had realized they could eat from the tree of life and become immortal before being caught,
they could have lived. That would appear to undermine the necessity of Jesus' later sacrifice.

If anyone appears to have misled Adam, it was Yahweh.

Yahweh told Adam he would die “in the day” that he ate from the tree.

That didn’t happen.

What the serpent said did happen.

Yahweh may have already planned to cut them off from immortality if they disobeyed,
but they lived for centuries afterward—nearly 1000 years.

They didn’t die in a day—they were already dying.

Adam and Eve were never immortal.
Adam and Eve were never perfect.
Genesis does not teach that they were.

Paul, in his letter to the Romans, might teach that death came through sin.
But if he truly means that sin directly caused human mortality, then he contradicts the Genesis account.
Jehovah’s Witnesses rely on Paul’s words rather than the Genesis story itself—and by interpreting him this way, they also end up contradicting Genesis.