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Genesis 2-3 – Is Knowledge Good or Evil?
One interpretation of the phrase “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2) is that the phrase is morally neutral and just means “everything”. Apparently Herodotus used the phrase that way.
Knowledge has always been a convoluted topic in the Bible. “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). So not knowing is dangerous. And yet, “knowledge puffs up, while love builds up.” So knowing can be dangerous.
It’s not knowledge that is bad, it is: 1) How we get it (bad example in Genesis 3); 2) How we use it (or what it does to us).
Some proudly claim “I don’t know more about the Bible than I do know”; which must be true of everyone. But it can have a condescending undertone suggesting those who claim to know something for certain are wrong – this is known for certain, that the other who claims to know for certain doesn’t know, because the one who claims to not know more than he knows, thinks he or she know more than the one who claims to know! That’s a hard sentence to write, read, and understand, so you might need to read it again.
The point of this devotional is knowledge is essential, Satan knows that; and Satan likes to twist that, so that the knowledge that is good becomes evil.
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