Just consider the behaviour of other animals. They steal and kill (sometimes even their own offspring). Their behaviour is always governed by decisions that they perceive as good for them and for their security. When threatened they are always defensive and will respond with either fight or flight, depending on their circumstance. If we always behaved as animals do, we would be considered sinful, however animals are never considered sinful because they have no understanding of moral issues.
Children also have no understanding of moral issues, but they
gain the ability to assess right and wrong as they mature. For this reason, we never
accuse children of sin. Civil laws also deem children and minors to have
diminished responsibility even when they commit serious crime.
It is necessary for a person to be able to discern right from
wrong before any sin is deemed to have been committed by them. (see John 15:22)
The same Hebrew words that are used in Genesis 3:22 for
this idiom are used in Deuteronomy 1:39
And
the LORD God said, Behold, the man
is become as one of us, to know
good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the
tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: …
Moreover,
your little ones, which you said should be a prey, and your children, which in
that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in
thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.
Deuteronomy 1:39
We see that the knowledge of good and evil that the
juvenile children of Israel lacked was a knowledge that their parents did have.
The children were deemed innocent because they lacked this awareness
while their parents were deemed guilty because they possessed it.
This is the same knowledge that the Lord God claimed
possession of.
God Knowing Good and Evil Gen
3:22
Who was the ‘Lord God’ referred to in this passage? Was it
just the Elohim (angels) who had this knowledge, perhaps gained in a previous
creation by failure and sin? Could it have been only the Elohim who made the
executive decision to exclude Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden?
The phrase ‘Lord God’, literally ‘Yahweh Elohim’, is
generally understood to mean ‘He who will be manifest in mighty ones’. And the
‘He’ (Yahweh) is always the one God – The Father, The Creator. This means that
it was God (Yahweh), not just the Elohim, who also made the executive decision
to ‘Let Us make man in our image’ and that it is Yahweh Himself who breathed
the breath of life into the nostrils of Adam.
But
doesn’t the use of the word ‘us’ in these two verses imply more than one
person?
Yes, it does, but God is
always seen in visions as being in the presence of His heavenly host and these
verses are simply understood as God speaking to those who were there with Him. He
speaks the directive to them and implies a personal participation in each of
the acts that He proposes.
The word “ya’da”
(knowledge) in this idiom has been taken to mean ‘knowledge gained by
experience’, because this is a common understanding of the use of the word. But
it does not always have to mean ‘to gain by experience’. It may also have the
meaning just to ‘perceive’ or ‘discern’. Both God and His angels are able to
discern between good and evil and it would be unreasonable to imply that Yahweh
needed to perform evil in order to gain such knowledge.
It is important to understand that this knowledge of good and evil (as
possessed by God and His angels) is the ability to consciously discern between good and evil. We sometimes
refer to it as conscience. It is the
consciousness of what is morally right or wrong.
It cannot be knowledge gained by ‘an experience of doing
wrong’, or the juvenile children of Israel (Deuteronomy 1:39) would have had it
beginning at an age somewhere between one or two years. The experience of doing
wrong is clearly not what is being referred to within this context.
This is also seen in the passage recorded earlier in
Genesis when it records that God made two special trees to put in the Garden.
Moses records in Genesis 2:9 that God placed…
..the tree of life also in the midst of the
garden,
and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
We are unable to assume from the text that the writer of
Genesis wanted to infer that, while the tree
of life had a potency to impart life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil lacked any specific potency.
It should be noted that, from the very beginning, evidence
for the “specialness” of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is quite
clear and there is no justification for thinking that one tree was more
potent than the other.
More importantly, we should understand that the tree was
custom-made to deliver ‘the knowledge of good and evil’ That is, it awakened the
ability to discern between what is morally right and morally wrong.
Have you ever wondered how the tree of life worked?
Was it blessed by some supernatural or mystical spell?
I think that it be more reasonable to understand that it simply
contained an ingredient that rejuvenated Adam and Eve, to keep them young.
How did the tree of the knowledge of good and evil work?
We aren’t told, but it could be that the tree also contained
an ingredient which precipitated a mental (and possibly physical) maturity.
In this way - while the tree
of life held back the normal progress of aging by continual use - the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil did the reverse and accelerated the natural
maturing process. Because the normal progression of development is forward
towards maturity, only one eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
was necessary to speed up this development and awaken the natural development
of conscience.
So, we see that, before eating the tree, Adam & Eve had
no knowledge of good and evil, in the same way that young children have no
knowledge of good and evil. They were unable to distinguish between what was
morally right or wrong. Children may choose to transgress a command - but this
decision isn't sin. A trained animal may choose to disobey a directive - but
this isn't sin either.
It is important to note that it was the fruit of this
special tree that brought about a change in the minds of Adam & Eve – it
was not just an experience of disobedience that caused their change of state.
Ever since Adam and Eve’s action, all of mankind matures to
a point where they are able to discern what is right and wrong - with the most
rapid development of conscience occurring at about the age of maturity. Usually,
this change is most noticeable at puberty and into our later teens. Most
parents of teenage children would have noticed that, as their teenagers grow
into maturity, they will start observing and picking up on any wrong attitudes by
other members of the family and correcting double standards. It is also at this
time in their lives that they can become reactionary to social wrongs.
The need to know the difference between good and evil is
seen in the account of Solomon gaining wisdom (which uses the same Hebrew
terms):
And
now, O LORD my God,
thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father:
and I am but a little child:
I know
not how to go out or come in.
And
thy servant is in the midst of thy people
which thou hast chosen, a great people,
that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.
Give
therefore thy servant
an understanding heart to judge thy people
that I may discern between good and bad:
for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?
And
the speech pleased the Lord,
that Solomon had asked this thing.
And
God said unto him,
Because thou hast asked this thing,
and hast not asked for thyself long life;
neither hast asked riches for thyself,
nor hast asked the life of thine enemies;
but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment.
Behold, I have done according to thy words:
lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart;
so that there was none like thee before thee,
neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.
1Kings 3:7
We see the same principal in the prophecy of Isaiah (which
is later applied to Jesus in Matthew’s gospel):
Therefore,
the Lord himself shall give you a sign;
Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name
Immanuel.
Butter
and honey shall he eat,
that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. -
For before the child shall know to refuse
the evil, and choose the good,
the land that thou abhor shall be forsaken of both her kings.
Isaiah 7:14-16
And the theme is repeated in the New Testament by the
writer to the Hebrews:
For
when for the time ye ought to be teachers,
ye have need that one teaches you again
which be the first principles of the oracles of God;
and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
For
every one that uses milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness:
for he is a babe.
But
strong meat belongs to them that are of full age,
even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised
to discern both good and evil.
Hebrews 5:12
While God has always been able to discern between right and
wrong, He is not subject to the same insecurities that we have. God is
immortal and all powerful – He has no need to act defensively. His
perfect perception of what is right and what is wrong gives rise to no internal
discord in Him at all, since all of His righteous thoughts and actions are
above the natural plain on which we exist. But the effect of being able to
discern between right and wrong creates a problem for us who are instinctively
motivated by self-interest. We experience internal discord that results from
having a Godly perception of morality in a natural, self-seeking body and mind.
We refer to the discord that arises from our failure to comply with our
conscience as guilt.
The dawning of conscience was accompanied by
the appearance of guilt in Adam and Eve – as it does in all people on earth
today. Guilt gives rise to its associated pain, a sense of shame,
damaged relationships, and an increase in defensive anti-social behaviour and
withdrawal.
David graphically describes the effect of guilt:
There
is no soundness in my flesh because of your anger; neither is there any rest in
my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head: as a
heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt because
of my foolishness. I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all
the day long. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no
soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of
the disquietness of my heart. Lord, all my desire is before you; and my
groaning is not hidden from you. My heart pants, my strength fails me: as for
the light of my eyes, it also is gone from me. My lovers and my friends stand
aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off. They also that seek after my
life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things,
and imagine deceits all the day long. But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I
was as a dumb man that opens not his mouth. Thus I was as a man that hears not,
and in whose mouth are no reproofs.
Psalm 38:3-14
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