Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Part 2)

God is sometimes accused, by those trying to deny the truth of the Adam and Eve story, of setting up our earliest ancestors for failure by planting the Tree Of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden.

Detail from the Sistine Chapel: Expulsion form the Garden

From a casual reading of the tale it indeed looks like God plants the tree and introduces the serpent in order to test the man and woman. Who wouldn't take the fruit now that so much attention has been focused on it? As for its location, slap bang in the middle of the garden.... God may as well have lit it up with a big neon sign.

The story is often portrayed as a "morality play" about "free will", choice and the inevitably of a fall. God is subtly blamed: God had made His case, presented the alternative, and the serpent, likewise made his case, the man and the woman made their judgement and subsequent choice. The had (as we do) free choice... they chose, not very wisely as it transpired, but the whole point in the "morality play" was making a choice. 

This a very human-centric, Hellenistic reading of the narrative, it concentrates the metaphysical and theological ideas of relating outward actions to inward thoughts and attempts to reconcile human actions with divine predestination.  We use the story in our debates about whether human free will is preferable to human security through divine rule and authority, and whether or not our free will compromises that divine rule. We give much thought to the idea that without "free will" our responses to God's love overtures would be robotic, and lack any sense of real devotion. At the same time we love our own offspring "unconditionally" without any demands on that love, and fail to see the dichotomy in doing so.  

Since the story fails to give us an answer, we are left pondering; is this story an exercise in  the dreadful predestination of a manipulative, even duplicitous God? Is Eden really a setup?

There is no sense in the story that's it's an exercise to focus on human will; more-so when they story is framed in terms of human freedom, rather it simply becomes a "temptation narrative".

The whole point of Eden was not to make a choice, not to sit some kind of divine exam, but rather to rule creation! Adam and Eve were God's Viceroys, His visible presence on the planet. He could have peopled it with angels, left it as a abode for animals and all kinds of plant and marine life, (which He may well have done in other place across the universe) but no...He chose to fill it with something made in His image... us.  

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Genesis 1:26-28 ASV

The man and woman were powerful, not powerless. God had set the world at their feet (Psalm 8) In both this story's cultural and literary context following Genesis 1:24-28  God is inviting the man and woman to share His authority and rule over all the other creatures in the human domain. Human beings are  not meant to be the world's servants, but rather its creator's deputies. 

Why then is the tree in the garden? It's not there just to tempt. Perhaps it's not there to tempt at all. First the tree is beautiful, and good for food.

And 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 the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. Genesis 3:6 ASV

Therefore the tree belongs in the garden, for God and humanity to see and appreciate. It's a monument to the unattainable wisdom of and knowledge of its Creator.  

 
 The command "not to eat of it" was just that, a command... it was given with and for a purpose. An instruction not to play with matches doesn't just keep children from getting burnt, or setting fire to the family home. It teaches children to respect their parents and perhaps more importantly, to obey what they say. It teaches obedience, humility and that teaches trust, and in turn faith. The prohibition is a gift; it allows humans to have a relationship with God characterized by faith, rather than works or something else.

The presence of the tree in the garden also reminds us that our authority is limited… we can rule over the land, the oceans, even the sky, but that is the limit of our authority. Without such a sign, the human race would soon be trying to storm the heavens through our own efforts, as it did at Babel.  Read Genesis 11   

What of the serpent? 

Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. Genesis 3:1-5 ASV

Was the serpent the Devil? It has become such an accepted part of the mythology associated with the drama surrounding Adam and Eve that we almost automatically assume that the serpent was indeed Satin. No where in Genesis does it say that Satin/Lucifer was disguised as a serpent, or took the form of a snake to trick Eve. When God found out what had happened He did not punish Satan/Lucifer. He condemned all snakes to crawl on their bellies from that time forward; so mankind were the only ones actually punished.

The are passages in the Bible that show Paul, speaking of this time and very situation in the Garden of Eden, said to the Church in 2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ. ASV

But is this proof that the serpent was the devil, or does it only indicate that was being used by the devil?

Revelation 12:9 and 20:2  says that the serpent is the Devil and Satan, but is Revelation not a book of symbols? Is this only a characterization of Satan as a serpent without actually and literally saying he is or was the serpent in the garden?

It's likely that the Devil used (possessed) and assumed the personality of the serpent, probably with its consent. That Satan is able to do this is an oft repeated theme in Bible and extra-biblical literature. In Mark 5:15-19 we read of a man that Jesus went to see who was possessed of the devil. In this account the devil spoke out from the man, assuming his voice and personalty. Likewise in Matthew 16:21-23 we read of a time when Satan assumed the voice and personality of Peter, Jesus' own disciple.

Whether the serpent was or was not actually Satan/Lucifer has been a debate for centuries, however the greatest "con trick" that the dark lord has played on a gullible humanity was not the one that duped  the first humans... no it's his ongoing ploy convincing us that he's not real! 

We humans think that we are too sophisticated, too modern and too intellectual to believe in a devil who has goaded us into atheism, lawlessness, immorality, spiritual blindness and unbelief. I believe that we all need to aware of the realities and activities of the mortal enemy of our souls.

1 Peter 5:8 warns us:  Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. ASV  

  

Look out for part 3 of  the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil soon