Image Details

Private Collection/Bridgeman Art Library

WITH FRUIT IN HAND, Eve and Adam stand by the tree in the center of the garden, surrounded by flora and fauna in this painting by contemporary Iraqi artist Suad Al-Attar. Eden has two famous trees: the Tree of Life, which grows in the center of the garden, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God warns Adam that if he eats from the Tree of Knowledge, he will die. Generations have asked why, then, Eve and Adam did not die when they ate the fruit. According to Sasson, a close reading suggests that Eve actually plucked the fruit from the other tree—the Tree of Life, at the center of the Garden. Instead of dying, she and Adam gained the potential to become immortal.