Neville Goddard on Genesis 2:15-17 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Genesis 2 in context

Scripture Focus

15And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Genesis 2:15-17

Biblical Context

Genesis 2:15-17 describes God placing man in Eden and commanding him not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; disobedience would bring death.

Neville's Inner Vision

Genesis 2:15-17 invites you to see the garden as your present state of consciousness and the command as a boundary kept by awareness. The man is your attentive I AM, placed in a field where thoughts may arise but must be tended rather than surrendered to. To eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is to engage in judgment and separation—believing life lines up by external conditions and by your own clever dualities. When you identify with the stream of appearances, you feel as if you die to the sense of unity; you lose the immediacy of being in God. The true response is not rebellion but fidelity: tend the garden, stay in the I AM, and accept that every tree of life is yours to imagine without ceasing to know yourself as one with the Whole. The prohibition is a safeguard that keeps you faithful to consciousness itself. In practice, your life unfolds as you insist, here and now, that you are the I AM and nothing external defines your reality.

Practice This Now

Close your eyes and declare, I AM, and I am in Eden now. Tend your inner garden by affirming unity with the I AM and revising any sense of separation, feeling life flow from within.