FAQ

Your question is one of the most frequently asked by people reading the Bible. We will answer with a quote from the magazine "Holy Joy", which published a series of articles on the book of Genesis where this question was examined:

But there is also another tree in the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The meaning of this image is not easy to understand. Let us recall what we discussed last time about a characteristic linguistic device—two antonyms connected by the conjunction "and". This does not mean "this and that", but "everything contained between the two poles". The poles in this case are good and evil, that which is right and that which is wrong, that which corresponds to the Creator's design and that which does not correspond to it. Then, if "heaven and earth" in the first chapter of Genesis means "everything", the universe from the perspective of how (of what) it is constructed, then "good and evil" is "everything", the universe from the perspective of how (based on what principles) it is ordered. And the source of these principles is the Creator Himself. So, perhaps we need to know these principles, to learn them? Not exactly. For us, the word "knowledge" means acquiring information, "satisfying curiosity". In the Bible, this word has a completely different meaning. For the biblical authors, there is no abstract knowledge; knowledge is strength, power, and the word "knowledge" means "taking possession" (cf. Gen 4:1), taking power. Thus, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil symbolizes a very profound reality—the existence of meaning, an underlying spiritual foundation, and principles in the universe, and that these principles are established by God. It is precisely the conformity of the universe to these principles that gives it vitality; therefore, these two trees—of life and of the knowledge of good and evil—stand together in the midst of Paradise. What, then, does God's commandment not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil mean (vv. 16-17)? It is not a prohibition against learning these principles; it is a commandment not to lay claim to authority over these principles, not to claim that I, a human being, will determine these principles, that I myself will decide what is good and what is evil. Because then I would violate the foundations of the universe established by God, undermining its vitality, which brings about death. One can eat fruit either from the tree of life or from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.