The Tree of Knowledge between Good and Evil.

There is a lot of speculation about the Tree in Genesis, and a lot of theories as to what exactly it is. Some take it in the literal sense, a physical tree from which Adam and Eve partook of the fruit. Others say it is a metaphor representative of something other than merely what it says.


However, what exactly is the "Knowledge between good and evil"? What does it represent? Morals? Why would God forbid Adam and Eve to eat from such a tree in that case?

There is a website concerning Nam'Shub's from ancient Sumeria which puts forward the notion that the story of the Tree is an explanation as to what changed when our left and right brains connected in the middle. This theory speculates that prior to the column connecting the left and right sides of the brain, we would have had no sense of "I" or "SELF", and we would also have heard our internal dialogue, but would have externalized it as being someone else speaking to us in our head.

It's a fascinating read, and not the only theory which has been put forward.

What was in the fruit that changed us? How did it change us? What did we learn that was forbidden? I'd like to hear what other people think, as if it is assumed to be a literal story, I'm missing the relevant information as to what we took from the experience. Does the church know the answer to this question?

- - good morning,

here's a focus point=>
IT, was called the "Tree of Knowledge..."
and not a "Tree of Wisdom"............big difference, no?

theres also been ideas that the Amanita magic mushroom
is the origin / source of the stylized & symbolized "Tree"

thats if you view a shroom as a dwarf or miniturarized or banzi type 'tree'
in so much that primitive men (and modern men for that matter)
can conjure of suductive notions while influenced by Amanita
that they are god-like, but in reality they are experiencing hubris & psychosis.......................................(that is ?valuable? knowledge?....
that men were warned to stay away from)
just a slice of possibilities, take care

[edit on 27-1-2006 by St Udio]

As to what you've said, the fruit gave us an Ego, probably splitting our left side from out right, and by this, making us wander of from God. I guess we are now in a phase of rebuilding that connection. Losing our egos and moving back to God.

In a course I did, they figured out our right brain is our ego, and the left side our intuition. Probably by eating this fruit, we broke our deal with God, disconnecting our ego from our intuition, making us loose from God, not trusting god/intuition (the all knowing) anymore and moving further on our own interpretations, found by seeking outside, which can be false, or are false.

I see where you go with this inner dialogue, looks like I've accomplished that part. I'd really like to read the page where you've gotten this from! It could boost me forward on my path.

I won't paraphrase the article, but let you interpret it as you will.

www.iswasandwillbe.com...

I agree with much of what Mr. Vinson has to say about the Word and would suggest perusal of some of the other articles located on his site.

Great topic, this has been going around in my head for sometime now and I still can't make any sense of it?

It could be seen in many different perspectives, who knows which one is true?

The splitting of the brain theory I have never heard before, but surely if that was true then that would kill Adam? If one minute your brain was in one state then after eating the fruit it changes and splits into the left and right side? that's got to hurt or even kill him?

Also the talking snake fascinates me!

Here is the link of which I spoke in the first post... it is "The Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind".

It's an excellent read. The whole deoxy.org website has a good deal of fascinating, mind expanding material.

[edit]]Oh, and as an edit, you guys need to read the first post again... I did not say the mind SPLIT, I said it JOINED.

[edit on 2/2/2006 by TheCrystalSword]

Interesting topic!

I've considered this topic for some time, and while I cannot offer any "real" reasearch, I've thought about it myself and had the same questions. I've heard differing arguments that many have heard before, that the name of the tree is simply symbolic of the command God gave to Adam and Eve, that by disobeying God's command, they knew evil (for evil is turning away from God). As to the question, why would God would not want man to know Good and Evil, because Man WAS good (God said so himself, right?), and as someone once told me, "Cleanliness does not spread". His sideways meaning was that Man was clean, perhaps in a sort of ignorant bliss, to know evil was to experience evil.

Now, as to WHY God would put temptation in the center of the garden... Or as to why the Bible (New Jerusalem Version) uses "subtle" not "evil" to describe the snake...

[edit on 2-2-2006 by TheDTs]

In Gnostic Tradition, the Snake is actually representative of Sophia, who is said to have taken on the form of the snake to undermine the Demiurgos, her imperfect creation... also known as the God of the Old Testament.

I think the story goes that Sophia felt that mankind needed to be free of the Demiurgos' influence because mankind was capable as a creation of moving beyond the Demiurgos to Pleroma, which would come much later with Christ being the true Spiritual Successor to the Demiurgos....

But getting back to the tree, Daniel Quinn suggests in his book "Ishamael" that the story of the tree is actually taken from "LEAVER" culture, or shamanic tribal societies who live close to the earth. He argued that the Tree was an explanation of how the "CIVILIZED" cultures behaved, as if they had eaten from the tree of the Gods and came to believe they WERE gods, with the knowledge of what is good and what is evil... not that the tree actually imparted anything to them.

"Ishamael" is a fine book, and it explores the subject at great depth and with an interesting method.

In all my studies, I have found that the snake represents Lilith which was a co-ruler with Adam, until she wished for more.
Maybe this site will be helpful to your query.



www.gotojassminesitenow.com...

Do some serious research on the African Iboga Tree. When intoxicated by this tree, you see everything good/bad you have ever done through the eyes of the people you have done them to. That in itself would make this the "Tree of the knowledge of good and evil". After eating from this tree, you'd then know good and evil because you'd have literally lived it in your own mind. If this isn't the actual tree, it has to be a subspecies that grew back out after the flood.

[edit on 2-3-2006 by WiseSheep]

God was testing their free will with the "Tree of the knowledge of good and bad." Something had to change in their thinking after that because Adam and Eve became embarassed of their nudity. They had to get some external knowledge to recognize a difference. Maybe the tree set off an adult form of puberty, they didn't have before. They might have had no desire for sex yet, because the scriptures indicate the children only came after the rebellion. God informed them of their future command to populate the earth, but maybe he wanted them to develop mentally first. (Some people today should not have children until they're wise enough.) They may have got aroused after they partook of the fruit and that might have been a foreign experience, weird to them. If they did have some sort of sex after partaking of the fruit, that would not have been the reason for the death of penalty. The death penalty came from the outright disobediance of partaking of the fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of good and bad. It could have been that God was going to have them partake of it later when they were more mature. Then after a few many hundred years he would have had them partake of the other tree in the middle of the garden, "The Tree of the Life." Then they would truely live on forever, like the angels, but in physical form-Another tree to induce a chemical reaction.

The serpent part is very interesting from my point of view.
Satan probably could not incarnate himself in physical form, to seduce Eve, in the Garden of Eden because of certain restrictions placed by God on all spirit creatures. They could observe, but could not be seen. No angel could speak to the inner mind of the humans, only God was allowed to do that. Satan had to figure out a way to physically speak to Eve. Under certain rules and rights given to Satan, naturally by God, he noticed an opportunity. Knowing the many designs of the animal creatures on Earth and possibly assisting in their development, he saw a few that could aid him in his plans. These creatures would have been of those that fly. How many birds can mimic vocalized human speach? Now could have the Serpent been one of the mimicing vocal reptiles? Satan could have manipulated the chords and tongue of this serpent-like bird. This creature could have looked more like a small dragon with wings-four limbs only. To remind all those in the spirt realm of this act of disobedience, God removed the limbs of every creature in the serpent family. The scripture reads:

"Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above all wild animals; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life." -Genesis 3:14

I think the tree symbolyzed the developement within man to decide what is good, and what isn't so good.

I don't think animals live with a daily fear of death like many people do, although, it's probably more prevalent in many species lives. they don't realize that they should fear death. what fear they do have is more on an instictive level with little rational thought involved.

humans on the other hand tend to rationalize every thing. childbirth is naturally painful, and well, ya, it does seem that animals do experience SOME pain, but well, with humans it's a logical process....
childbirth=pain, pain is bad, need to resist bad, and well resistance increases the pain!!

by what I've come to understand, the angels have never developed this rationalization of what is good vs. what is bad. therefore, God could send his angels to wipe out entire cities and well, no guilt would ever be felt within the angel and his fellow angels would not be able to judge his deeds as good or bad. they just were. makes for nice obedient servants, but well, I think God wanted more. therefore, God allowed Eve to be tempted with this ability, knowing full well that she would fall for the temptation.....accepting the good along with the bad, and thus, sending us down this nice path to attempt to understand and discern both the good and the not so good aspects of God himself....God, learning about himself in the process.

we would have never harnessed the power of fire, if we hadn't gained the ability to interpret being cold as being a not so good sensation.

we would have never developed civilazations, built houses and cities, ect.
we would be still running purely on the instints that were built into us at creation.

The tree of Good and evil is the fleshly body of man....

atoms(adam) and eve (my assumption is eve is the atom when it is what we called disappeared) is the basic soup of everything ... in the garden of eden we could live in our spirit/soul/ego body...

Now the tree or the body...
since your body is a tree (in this context) it either has the direct ability to create good fruit or bad fruit... since our tree (or body) is the knowledge of good and evil... is the conciousness of right and wrong, in our own personal world/way it has shot forth branches of both the good and "evil" "fruit." but the judgement is solely our own because in our spirit/soul body there merely "IS" ... Good and Bad don't exist because that which is alive can never die, energy cannot be destroyed.

blah blah blah...
anyhow..

The point is, God gave us the instructions from the beginning.......

DON'T JUDGE THINGS and you'll live in Paradise...

Don't eat the fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil and you'll be fine...

[edit on 24/3/06 by dnero6911]

I believe that the Tree of Life is a 'type' of Christ and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a 'type' of the Law (through which the knowledge of sin comes).

There are lots of types and shadows in Genesis.

Adam and Eve are a 'type' of Christ and the church.

Cain and Abel are 'types' of "the natural man" (that which is first, the first born) and "the spiritual man" (that which comes "after" or the second born).

We can even see a connection between Christ and the church with Abel (who was slain by "the first born"; he that "hateth His brother") and Seth (who was given "instead" of Abel).

Abel's blood cried up to God from the ground. Just as Christ's, who spoke better words than those of Abel when He said "Father forgiven them for they know not what they do" cried up to God from the Cross when His blood was shed.

Notice that neither Cain nor Abel is mentioned in "the generations of Adam" in the day that they were "created" in the image of God and after His likeness, only Seth is mentioned.

That which is "formed" and "made" comes before that which is "created" (n His image and after His likeness.

God send forth HIS SPIRIT and they are CREATED.

The pattern of these things is shown in Genesis. (I've only gotten as far as the first 5 chapters.)





[edit on 17-11-2007 by CharlieMike]

[edit on 17-11-2007 by CharlieMike]