Who was he talking to?

Question

Then the LORD God said: "See! The man has become like one of us, knowing what is good and what is bad! Therefore, he must not be allowed to put out his hand to take fruit from the tree of life also, and thus eat of it and live forever."

One of us?

Why cant we know good and bad like him and live forever?

Answer 1

God was talking to Jesus.

John 17:24 "Father, as to what you have given me, I wish that, where I am, they also may be with me, in order to behold my glory that you have given me, because you loved me BEFORE the founding of the world."

Prov.8:30 "then I {Jesus} came to be beside him as a master worker, and I came to be the one he was specially fond of day by day, I being glad before him all the time, being glad at the productive land of his earth, and the things I was fond of were with the sons of men."

Answer 2

I believe that this verse preserves the ancient view in Israel that there was a Divine Council, with Yahweh or El at the top. Yahweh and El eventually became identified as one. We know that many Israelites believed in Asherah - a consort of El/Yahweh, and Baal, who was seen as subordinate to El. The Gods in the ancient near east constituted a family or council. You can see vestiges of this belief in the Bible. And I believe the verse you mention is one of those places.

Another possible explanation is that it refers to angels. At a later stage of development in Hebrew religion, the idea of the Divine Assembly as consisting of Gods changed to an assembly consisting of only one God (Yahweh) who had angels serving Him. The angels were not to be worshiped, and much of their function was to worship God. You can see this in Isaiah 6 (I think that's the right chapter) where the angels are calling out "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts."

So whether it is Gods or Angels will depend on what time this verse was written. If I'm not mistaken, the "J author" wrote the verse in question. J is pretty old, so it could be either gods or angels, I'd say.

As far as why God would not want us to know good and evil and live forever - my interpretation of this is that since humans are not perfect, their knowledge is potentially dangerous, especially if we were to live forever. Presumably, God can handle the knowledge, because He is perfect, and morally good.
If nothing else, the story is an etiology (a myth which explains the way things are). Why don't humans live forever? Well, because once upon a time......... These types of stories were common in the ancient world, and the Genesis story no doubt draws on older Mesopotamian stories, in which humans were made for the purpose of serving the Gods.

Answer 3

God the Father was talking to Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The reason we can't know good and bad and live forever is because it would be a curse to live forever as a slave to the sinful passions of our human bodies. That's why Jesus had to come and then send the Holy Spirit so that we could be "born again", that is renewed spiritually and transformed over time into the likeness of Jesus through the sanctifying work of the Spirit.

The after Jesus comes back for us we will be resurrected with eternal bodies and in the New Heaven and Earth there will no longer be sin or anything that would cause someone to sin. We can live forever with God and know fullness of joy and pleasures forever more.

1 Corinthians 15:51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,

Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

Answer 4

Starting at the end: Biblicly speaking (for those who believe) it's not about knowing good and bad AND living forever. It's about obedience to your creator. A lesson in life be it related to worship or family (parent/child) relations.

Now for the main thrust. Get real, there are various moments in the bible (if you're buying in at all) where rational minds can see that there is evidence to refute the trinity theory (yes, it's a theory).
Religious leaders have to have the most enviable jobs. Anything that is contested in the bible can just be refuted by escaping back to the bible as tho it's it's own justification. It reminds me of insanity pleas of voices in your head where that is actually accepted as valid and the offender is let off because we can't physically prove otherwise. too much time wasted on this already.

Answer 5

Adam and Eve were warned that with the knowledge of evil comes death. This was the consequence of eating from the tree. When God issued this warning it was as a Father to His children; it is no different than when a parent says 'don't touch the stove, it is hot.' He was warning them that the tree brings death. His statement is one of mourning, He is saddend by the result of their choice.

In the old testament references to 'us' are an implicit reference to the Trinity. It is also possible that he was speaking to angels as there is a war going on in heaven and the angels would be aware of evil as they had already chosen a side.

Answer 6

God was talking to the heavenly host which is the angels. We do know good and bad and we will live forever in Heaven with God and the Lord Jesus Christ or in Hell. You can control where you end up by accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior and follow his example. If you follow Jesus Christ here on earth your reward is Heaven and if you reject him you will live forever in suffering.

Answer 7

The Lord God was talking to the other two persona's of the Godhead (Trinity). The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

Why was it not good that we, humans, know good from evil?

When God created humans, they were created in his likeness, to be with out sin. Satan, better known as the Devil, caused them to disobey, bringing sin into the world. To be with sin caused a curse, which is death. So God didn't want us to know good from bad because he wanted us to live forever. Satan, who would do anything to lead the human astray because of his jealousy and pride, caused the curse of death. So what did God do? Well, he sent his son, Jesus, to come to earth to die and DEFEAT death by his Resurrection, foiling Satan's plan. Jesus, who died and was resurrected, gives this same GIFT of salvation (living forever with him) to all of humankind, if only they repent of their sins and accept him and his gift. Making a way once again for humankind to live forever, despite Satan's attempt to keep us in the grave and worse, eternal damnation of the fiery pit. You see, God does love us!

Answer 8

If Eve & Adam had to eat the fruit to know good & evil, then it means they didn’t know the difference before they ate, so why were they punished?

“one of us” is polytheism pure & simple. Most traces were removed from the scripture, but some remained. Yahweh started his career as one of many gods, in particular, he was worshiped as a field god and later became more popular.

Answer 9

Someday we are going to live forever and in this life mankind already knows good and bad like God except he has freedom to choose to do right or bad.

Answer 10

Ohhhh did you stumble upon something!!!!

Let the Xtians attack me for this, but god as you know him was talking to the OTHER DIETIES - what, did you really think there was only one???

I've written an entire article on this. You can find it on witchvox.

Dare you to disprove it.