The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil

The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil

One of two significant trees in the Garden of Eden, The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil has been variously posited as:

• Apple
• Fig
• Pomegranate
• Tamarind
• Grape
• Iboga

Or it may just be a metaphor or symbol.

Whatever it was, God didn’t want his creations eating from this tree, and told them not to do it, “for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

The Serpent which guarded the tree refuted this:

The serpent said to the woman, “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.
–Genesis 3:4-9

So, the fruit of this tree apparently made the eater like God, providing wisdom and enlightenment as well as an understanding of what was Good and what was Evil.

Adam and Eve’s first reaction was that they didn’t have any clothes on, with resulting shame and embarassment. That doesn’t sound very wise and enlightened to me.  The significance of this act may have been that the pair gained the knowledge that God lied to them (as they did not die on the day they ate the fruit), and that their creator had given them free will to disobey his orders.

Similar trees appear in other religions:

• Sumerian seals depict a tree guarded by the Serpent
• Greek mythology details a central tree featured in the blissful Garden of the Hesperides, which was guarded by a serpent named Ladon
• Buddha received enlightenment (knowledge) from the bodhi (fig) tree

Much like the Tree of Life, the Tree of Knowledge is not unique to Bible stories.

SOURCES
Tree of Life (Judeo-Christian) – Wikipedia
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil – Wikipedia
The Knowledge of Good and Evil

IMAGE CREDIT

• Tamarind Tree by dinesh_valke, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivative Works.
• Fig Tree by taomancer, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 2.0.
• Pomegranate tree by drumsnwhistles, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivative Works.