Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained the meaning of the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil: “As to the fall, the scriptures set forth that there were in the Garden of Eden two trees. One was the tree of life, which figuratively refers to eternal life; the other was the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which figuratively refers to how and why and in what manner mortality and all that appertains to it came into being” (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, 86).