I have been meditating a lot lately on the biblical account of the Fall of Man in Genesis 3. Concerning what happened in the Fall, I posted the following recently online in a Christian discussion forum:
“A. Genesis 2:9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
All the trees in the Garden were pleasant to the sight and good for food, but only one tree was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
B. Genesis 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
In this statement, the serpent did not refer to partaking of something that was pleasant to the sight and good for food; rather, he spoke of their eyes being opened and their being ‘as gods, knowing good and evil.’
C. Genesis 3:6a-c And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise,
For Eve, the tree being good for food and pleasant to the eyes were factors in her doing what she did, and she desired to be made wise by taking of the fruit of the tree and eating it.
D. Genesis 3:22a And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:
God’s concluding statement about what had happened did not speak of the man’s partaking of forbidden fruit that was good for food and pleasant to the eyes, even though that was part of what had happened. Rather, God’s stated concern was on man’s having in some manner ‘become as one of us, to know good and evil.‘
Conclusion
A careful examination of these statements shows that seeking to obtain divinely withheld knowledge and wisdom by a forbidden means from a forbidden source was at the heart of the demonic enticement of Eve.”
Photo: Tiny Green Apples on Tree – Photos Public Domain
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