Quote:
Originally Posted by DistantStar
I didn't get this while I was there and I do not get it now. Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil is precisely that. Knowledge of Good and Evil.
While I was in that denomination they would always put the emphasis on the fact that the tree (which is bad [in their eyes]) was not only of the knowledge of evil, but of the knowledge of Good as well.
They are implying that the Good is evil. And that just does not make any sense whatsoever.
Perhaps you can clarify it for me?
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I think the issue can be confusing if too much focus is placed on what the Tree of Knowledge 'represents' rather than the simple fact that God put it off limits. WL added a lot to the story in Genesis that wasn't really there. For that reason it might be helpful to look at the whole from a different angle. In the LC especially, there is the tendency to dilute the whole Garden of Eden scene to a story of "two trees." as if there were only two options. They will narrow in on the two trees and project a figurative meaning that isn't explicitly stated.
In Genesis 3, God said “
The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” It seems to me that knowing good and evil was never the true danger. Yes, it was unfortunate because life would have been so much simpler with a greater degree of innocence, but the real danger was knowing good and evil combined with the ability to live forever. It was the combined effects of the Tree of Knowledge with the Tree of Life. After all, this is what made it necessary to boot Adam and Eve from the garden.
What I really want to call into question is the actual significance of the Tree of Life in Genesis 2. By this I mean the significance of the tree with respect to what God told Adam. All this chapter says about the Tree of Life is where it was located in the garden. Of course some would interpret allegorically or assume a particular significance based upon it being in the center of the garden, but I think that is more speculative that anything else. Please note that I am not calling into question the actual significance of the Tree of Life, but just the role that it played at that particular point in time.
What God told Adam was simple - that he could eat of any tree in the garden, except for the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Despite any assumed significance of what role the Tree of Life played, there was no direct or specific command prioritizing the Tree of Life above any other good tree in the garden. We don't know what the other trees were, but we do know that God was okay with them. For all we know, God could have cared less at that point as to whether or not the Tree of Life was chosen above any other permissible tree in the garden. What we know with certainty is what God didn't want.
So when the serpent came to tempt Eve, it wasn't really a dilemma of "two trees." It was choosing whether or not to obey God. That was the issue. What the Tree of Knowledge actually represented is mostly irrelevant in this context, because God never told Adam
why he shouldn't eat of it. He just said don't do it. Of course, we understand why God didn't want them to eat it, but that isn't as important as the fact that He said don't do it.