Genesis 3:22 – The Moment of Awakening: Neville Goddard’s Interpretation

"And the Lord God said, Truly, the man has become like one of us, having knowledge of good and evil; and now he might put out his hand and take of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever." — Genesis 3:22 (BBE)

To many, this verse marks the fall of man—a moment of disobedience and divine restriction. But to Neville Goddard, this is no moment of condemnation. Rather, it is a revelation: a declaration of emergent consciousness, where man awakens to his divine potential through the gift of imagination.

The Fall as Conscious Expansion

Traditionally, the story of Adam and Eve is seen as a loss of innocence, a fall into sin. Neville, however, reinterprets this as a deliberate descent—not into sinfulness, but into the realm of experience. The knowledge of good and evil is the birth of discernment. With it, man is no longer a passive being in paradise but an active creator capable of shaping reality.

“Man is all imagination,” Neville would affirm, “and God is man, and exists in us and we in Him.”

In this light, Genesis 3:22 is not a warning but a milestone. Man has awakened to the divine within—the ability to know, to perceive contrast, and ultimately, to create. This is the first stirrings of Christ within, the divine spark gaining self-awareness.

“Like One of Us” — Recognising the Divine Image

The phrase “Truly, the man has become like one of us” does not indicate rivalry or trespass. Instead, it reflects the inherited nature of divinity within man. According to Neville, God’s image is not physical, but imaginative. To “become like God” is to awaken to the creative faculty of thought—the very power by which worlds are formed.

This verse is evidence of man stepping into his God-given inheritance. He is no longer unconscious. He now holds the key to shaping his world through his inner assumptions.

The Tree of Life — The Inner Way

The concern in the verse—“he might put out his hand and take of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever”—is not about divine punishment but divine timing. Neville would say that eternal life cannot be granted while man is still ignorant of his creative nature. The flaming sword and the guarded way (Genesis 3:24) represent not divine rejection, but the inner journey of remembrance.

Only when man awakens to his full creative power can he consciously return to the Tree of Life—not as a guest, but as a son who knows his Father.

Conclusion: Genesis 3:22 as the Beginning, Not the End

Neville Goddard’s interpretation of Genesis 3:22 transforms it from a tale of restriction into a prophetic moment of empowerment. It is the point where man, through the knowledge of good and evil, begins his journey back to divine unity—not through obedience, but through imaginative mastery.

This is not the fall of man. This is the rise of consciousness. A symbolic moment in which man becomes aware that the power to shape life—to eat of the Tree of Life and live forever—lies within him, awaiting his discovery.