Like the animals the man is permitted to eat of the vegetation (1:29–30; 2:16), but this very broad permission excludes two trees, namely, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life (2:17). The former tree is the focus of the testing. The tree of life becomes the main concern only toward the end of the narrative (3:22). The prohibition has thus introduced us to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as the symbol of temptation, as well as to the tree of life, which is a symbol