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Eden
If I'm not mistaken, the Bible mentions two trees: the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and bad. God told Adam and Eve that they couldn't eat of the tree of knowledge. Had a certain time period passed and they followed this rule, God would have undoubtedly led them to the tree of life and let them eat from this tree. This would have given them "life".
Instead, both Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit (tree of knowledge) and they suddenly became "aware". How much so remains unclear. We can get some clues however...as shown later when God is walking among the Garden of Eden. The first sign of this "awareness" appears when Adam & Eve are "afraid" and hide. The context seems to imply that they've never been afraid of God before. God also asks them who "told them" they were naked, seeming to imply that they couldn't have found this out of their own.
Merely "eating" of the forbidden fruit wasn't enough for them to suffer. We can infer this from the fact that God cast them out of the Garden of Eden and posted angels to ensure that they couldn't get back in. Had they fought with the angels and somehow managed to get to the tree of life, they probably would have had the best of both worlds...knowledge and life. Unfortunately, the Garden of Eden was destroyed in the flood...so none of us can eat of either tree today.
There's quite a bit the Bible doesn't mention as well...but we can attempt to "guess". How long was Adam & Eve on earth before they ate of the forbidden fruit? It could have been a few days or several thousand years. They never had children while in the Garden of Eden, so this seems to imply the time was somewhat short. However we have to remember that God's original purpose was for them to live "forever" on earth in a paradise. When you have "forever", several thousand years isn't a long time.
MoJo
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