Perrydox.com is devoted to the pursuit of truth, whether plain or paradoxical, whether simple or sublime, or simply absurd yet absolute.
The Mysterious Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
The mysterious “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9) has many secrets. One is, what kind of fruit? Tradition says “apple” but this is because the Latin for bad/evil and apple are homonyms and the Vulgate (a Latin translation) was at one time the most popular translation (Psst, the only fruit mentioned in Genesis 3 is by association, figs via fig leaves). Did the tree have “magical” powers which resulted in a miraculous opening of the eyes of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:7)? I doubt it because temptation and sin itself has the property of “opening our eyes.” In fact, Eve’s eyes were “opened” during the temptation. Notice the text saying, “The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at….” (Genesis 3:6). Was this the first time Eve saw the tree? Very doubtful. This was however, the first time Eve “saw” the tree in the throes of temptation. Maybe most important is, why did God put it there to begin with? This will be answered by asking how the tree gave its knowledge.
Occam’s razor indicates that the simplest explanation — that is, the solution that requires the fewest assumptions — is preferable. Can we use this reasoning for this tree by asking another question: How did the tree of the knowledge of good and evil teach good and evil?
A simple answer is that Adam and Eve learned good and evil in a basic, conceptual sense by God’s command to not eat of it (Gen.2:17). The command itself is good because it protected their lives. The submission to God’s command is also good because it teaches us to honor God. However, eating of the tree taught them evil because that is when they decided not to do good.
This doesn’t solve all the issues, including the fact that God himself says he knows good and evil and yet God never sinned and says that after eating is when Adam and Eve learned both good and evil (Gen.3:22). Of course, God’s conception of evil is through divine knowledge and not experience. Could the first couple’s knowledge have gone from conceptual to reality?
There are many mysteries, things I do not understand, in the Bible. We will have to wait until heaven for God to reveal the knowledge if he so chooses. But until then we all have our “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”; it’s called the word of God. Obeying God gives us life and teaches us what is good and keeps us away from death and evil. That’s why the tree was there and why we need the “tree” today.
Comments