Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

The Nature and Purpose of the Tree

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil stood in the centre of the Garden of Eden, alongside the Tree of Life, functioning as the pivot of human Free Will and the instrument of moral maturation.

While the Tree of Life represented the unmediated presence of God and the seat of wisdom, the Tree of Knowledge corresponded to the realm of sensory experience and the discernment between pleasure and pain.

It was not evil by nature, but served a pedagogical purpose intended to train the first humans in obedience and self-discipline.

The fruit of this tree was mixed and doubtful in character, possessing a dual quality analogous to poisons prepared with honey. While appearing pleasant to the eyes and good for food, it concealed destruction for those who approached it without the requisite spiritual maturity.

The tree represented the material world as perceived through the senses; when engaged with apart from the illumination of the spirit, this sensory perception leads the intellect away from the eternal and towards the transitory.

The prohibition against eating was a temporary fast rather than a permanent deprivation, designed to teach Adam to subordinate the physical senses to the intellect and the intellect to God.

The Concept of Knowledge

The knowledge offered by the tree was not intellectual data or logical discrimination, which Adam already possessed in fullness. Adam displayed immense wisdom and the ability to distinguish the natures of created beings when he named the animals, a task demonstrating that he was not created in a state of ignorance regarding the fundamental distinction between good and evil.

The knowledge imparted by the tree was experiential rather than theoretical. Just as a physician understands disease theoretically while the patient understands it through suffering, God knows evil as a possibility without participation, whereas Adam acquired the knowledge of evil through the act of becoming evil.

The Hebrew nomenclature for the tree indicates that the knowledge gained was the intimate experience of the violation of divine order. Scripture names things based on the events that transpire in relation to them; thus, the tree was named for the outcome of the transgression - the experiential knowledge of nakedness and shame, rather than for any inherent power in the wood or fruit to bestow wisdom.

By partaking of the fruit, humanity exchanged the noetic faculty of discerning the eternal for the corporeal faculty of distinguishing between sensory pleasure and pain. This shift in perception obscured the vision of God, replacing it with a fixation on the surface appearances of the material world.

The Veil of the Sanctuary

In the topographical arrangement of Paradise, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil functioned as the veil of the sanctuary.

Paradise is understood as a cosmic mountain-temple, with the Tree of Life situated at the summit in the Holy of Holies. The Tree of Knowledge stood partway up the slopes, acting as a boundary or curtain that separated the holy place from the holiest. Just as the veil in the later Hebrew temple guarded the presence of God, the commandment regarding the Tree of Knowledge guarded the approach to the Tree of Life.

Adam and Eve were placed in the garden, corresponding to the nave or sanctuary, to serve as priests and guardians. Their task was to progress from the lower regions of the mountain, passing the test of the Tree of Knowledge through obedience and humility.

Had they remained faithful, resisting the allure of the fruit until they had attained spiritual maturity, God would have eventually granted them access to the tree, allowing them to pass through the veil and partake of the Tree of Life.

The prohibition was not a denial of the gift but a delay to ensure the recipient was capable of receiving it without ruin.