The tree of life: Banned or not banned? a rational choice interpretation

Literal biblical interpretation advocates the view that at the outset of the paradise story Adam and Eve were only banned to eat of the tree of knowledge. The present paper challenges this view through an economic, rational choice interpretation and the application of a self-interested decision calculus (model of economic man). I mount the thesis that, on grounds of a rational choice reconstruction, Adam and Eve must have been implicitly banned from the outset not to eat of the tree of life, despite no explicit ban being stated in Genesis. The paper argues for the validity and insightfulness of such a rational choice analysis of the paradise story, which considerably clarifies the conceptual logic and structure of the Eden story.