What is the "Tree of the knowledge of good and evil" in Genesis 3? What does it do?

Answer 1

interesting question...I am not sure that the verse in Genesis is literal...well is anything in the Bible taken literal these days...50 people have 51 different perceptions......but I think the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil represents your state of mind and the freedom and ability you have to choose to do good or bad..

Answer 2

Have you not read that you can judge a person by their fruit? Is this person a tree? No. Its just a metaphor.

The same thing applies in Genesis Chapter 3.
Eve knew what God told her about the serpent in the middle of the garden. You starting to see a little clearer now.

The fruit of the serpent aka. Satan, is the Knowledge of Good an Evil.

There was also another tree there in the garden. The Tree of Life. aka. Jesus Christ.><>

Answer 3

The tree and it's fruit represented Jehovah's right as Creator and God to decide for this creation what is right and what is wrong.

What Went Wrong?

God gave our first parents, Adam and Eve, a perfect start. They had perfect bodies and minds and a paradise garden for a home. If they had submitted to God's rule, they would have remained perfect and happy. In time, they would have been the parents of an entire perfect, happy human family living on a paradise earth. That was God's purpose for the human race.—Genesis 1:27-29; 2:15.

However, our original ancestors misused their free will. They wrongly thought that they could be successful independent of God. Of their own free will, they stepped outside the boundaries of his laws. (Genesis, chapter 3) Because they rejected his rulership, he no longer was obligated to sustain them in perfection. 'They acted ruinously on their own part, did not remain his children, and the defect was their own.'—Deuteronomy 32:5.

Answer 4

When God created Adam and Eve he created them in innocence and holiness. This was the way that God intended them to stay. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the tree of sin. God did not want the first couple to have knowledge of sin, just as today he does not want us to experience sin. The tree of good and evil represents this world and the worldliness of people---their sin. It represents the rejection of God's authority and reliance upon the self, which is known as self-righteousness. Religion is self-righteousness because it is a system of works whereby man attempts to get at God. God rejects this because he is righteous and demands that people rely on him for everything, including their salvation. When Eve was deceived and then Adam sinned, the world was opened up to good and evil, and humankind has been struggling ever since. Whenever we launch out on our own and away from God, then we are eating from the tree of good and evil; in other words, we are disobeying God and not allowing ourselves to receive the full blessing of his ministry toward us.

Answer 5

That Tree was a Macintosh Apple Tree. Really,,,I read it in the Bible. Eve ate of that tree, an apple. Really, I read it in the Bible.

That apple had magical powers to make one wise...really I read it in the Bible.

Wait, Wait, sorry, I didn't read all that in the Bible, because it's nowhere in the Bible that Eve ate an APPLE. People seem to rather believe a lie than the truth, even if they read it in the Bible, they don't want to believe it.

The tree was the Serpent or Satan.
Ever read Ezekiel 31:1-9? It tells us in black and white lettering who that tree was. It's description fits none other than Satan.


BTW...ever read Hosea14-8...where God describes Himself as a Green Fir Tree?

Answer 6

The fruit of it apparently gives the devourer the knowledge of good and evil.
Where Adam and Eve were not aware nor prone to do evil, afterward they knew and did evil in the sight of God.

Answer 7

For believers, the tree of knowledge is the root of all evil.

Answer 8

It was just an ordinary fruit tree, like all the others.
However, by touching it, or eating of its fruit, God would know
(have the knowledge) that Adam preferred evil.
If Adam refrained, all would know he preferred good.
God chose not to suppose these things, but rather have it clearly demonstrated. Obvious to all.

Answer 9

Eve was thoroughly deceived by the devil, "for in the day you eat of it, you are to become like God, knowing good and bad." Prior to that sin, God had the right to direct Adam and Eve as to what was right and what was wrong. After that sin, mankind has developed a spirit of independence from God and has resulted in centuries of chaos.

Answer 10

This is allegory for humanity taking their awareness away from the unity of GOD in all things,seeing nothing but GOD, then they saw duality,good and evil,up/down,in/out, love/hate,heaven/hell ,etc. NOW we must return to GOD through unity awareness,all this is GOD,all this is GOD." LEST THINE EYE BECOME SINGLE YOU CAN NOT DISCERN THE THINGS OF GOD"