Tree of Life- ....take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:....Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil-And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it,...And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die..For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Genesis 3:22/ 2-5
In the Chinese Myth below one can possibly se the corruption via time through pagan re-telling of the echoes of the story of the Tree of Life as well as the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil blended together.
Notice:
a) There is a god and goddess in paradise. Possible echo distorted of our first parents Adam and Eve.
b) There are fruit, peaches in this story, of immortality. As one had to eat of the Tree of Life in the real story in Genesis, so too do those who have to eat at regular intervals to keep immortality.
c) Only 2 humans have ever tasted of the fruit that gives immortality--distortion of the only real two to have-Adam & Eve, but changed to two males emperors.
d) The story was with the ancient Chinese, as their ancestors as far back as the oracle bone inscriptions recorded the story. (likely fresh in their memory by oral story-telling and twisting of events over time since their dispersal from Babel).
e) The story is connected to myths stretching back to Anatolia. (that is where the mountains of Ararat, where the ark rested, is likely located....it is where the offspring of Noah dispersed from).
f) Blended into the story is one form of the peaches that enhances wisdom (likely weaving in the fruit from the tree of knowledge of Good & Evil).
g) Would the famous "Eight Immortals" be the 8 survivors of the Flood, who had a long life span?
"In Chinese mythology, Heaven is an actual imperial dominion—with a fully functioning bureaucracy—ruled over by the Jade Emperor
and his wife, known as the Queen Mother of the West. On this special
day, the Queen Mother is holding her annual Peach Banquet at the Jade
Pool of the Emperor’s Golden-Gate Cloud Palace.
To make this event a reality, the Queen Mother sends out invitations to
the prestigious guests and summons the Seven Fairies—Red Fairy, Blue
Fairy, White Fairy, Black Fairy, Purple Fairy, Yellow Fairy, and Green
Fairy, to be exact—to collect peaches from her Peach Orchard. After all,
what Peach Banquet would be complete without peaches, and these are no
ordinary peaches: they are the Peaches of Immortality.
One smaller variety of the Peaches of Immortality, with tiny blossoms,
allows those who eat it to feel their bodies are both light and strong.
This variety is said to open up one’s mind to higher wisdom and to
lengthen one’s life.
The Queen Mother of the West, known by various local names, is a goddess in Chinese religion and mythology,
also worshiped in neighboring Asian countries, and attested from
ancient times. The first historical information on her can be traced
back to oracle bone inscriptions of the fifteenth century BC that record sacrifices to a "Western Mother".
Elfriede R. Knauer demonstrates a connection with the Anatolian mother goddess Cybele.
See her "The Queen Mother of the West: A Study of the Influence of
Western Prototypes on the Iconography of the Taoist Deity." In Victor H.
Mair, ed., Contact and Exchange in the Ancient World (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2006), pp. 62–115.
Legend states that the peaches in the orchard of Xiwangwu only ripen
once every 3000 / 6000 / 9000 years. When this happens, Xiwangwu would
throw a banquet to celebrate the occasion. The gods, including the
famous Eight Immortals, would be invited to partake of this feast.
According to Chinese belief, anyone who ate the Peaches of Immortality
would be granted not only with immortality, but also with eternal youth.
It is said that only two people ate of the Peaches of immortality, Emperor Zhou and the second person said to have been given the Peaches of Immortality was
the Emperor Wu of Han. The emperor is recorded to have been given
several peaches by Xiwangmu.
These valuables fruits were so highly
treasured by the emperor that their stones were preserved, one of which
is believed to have been presented to the first emperor of the Ming
Dynasty. This peach stone is said to have 10 characters engraved on it."
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