What is the Significance of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil?
After receiving the image of God, Adam and Eve were in full, perfect relationship with God, instructed only to avoid eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil with the consequence of death for disobeying (Genesis 2:16-17). Adam and Eve consciously chose evil when they disobeyed God’s orders and ate from the tree, thus coming to a deeper understanding of morality. At this point they became self-conscious and ashamed, covered their naked bodies and hid from God. God cast them out of the Garden of Eden, and they were alienated from God through a spiritual death. This event is widely known as the Fall, although the term is not used in the Bible itself. Most biblical scholars agree this story contains many figurative elements consistent with the ancient motifs that were common in Near Eastern creation accounts, many of which predate the story of the Garden of Eden. It seems unlikely these were literal trees. But the point of the story is not to catalog the plant life in the garden,
