Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.””
Genesis 3:5

First the lie, and now the promise of (a) something the devil cannot provide, and (b) something that they ALREADY had. She was perfect, yet she was made to think that she was imperfect. She was already wise, yet she was made to think that eating this fruit would make her wise. What she already had as a perfect creation (VERY good), an image of God, and the likeness of God is what she was being promised. Since all good things come from God and God ONLY gives good things, the fruit she was being offered would actually only provide NEGATIVE things – something they didn’t need and God didn’t want them to have. As a man of God once said: ‘One of the first steps toward sin is dissatisfaction with what we have. We have all things in Christ (John 1:16 and Colossians 2:9-10). A person who is secure in who they are in Christ will not fall for the temptations of the devil.’

An alternate translation of “knowing good and evil” is ‘you will be INTIMATE with good and evil’. Humanity – both male and female – were INTELLIGENT. But knowledge of good and evil isn’t intellectual. Rabbeinu Bahya writes that prior to their sin, their intellect was totally spiritually oriented; it was not concerned with matters of the body. They could make statements which confirm or deny the truth of something, but not bother with its moral potential. But then they disobeyed and ate the fruit. From that moment on, considerations such as physical desire, appreciation of physical beauty or ugliness clouded his previously pure intellect. Their pure intellect DIED.

The sage Steinsaltz writes: ‘The serpent now revealed the ostensible motivation for the divine prohibition: For God knows that on the day you eat from it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God, knowers of good and evil. God does not want you to eat from this tree, not because it is dangerous, but because by consuming it you will be raised to a higher level. God seeks to prevent you from acquiring the knowledge of good and evil that He possesses.’ The implication is that they can be more like God than they currently were (which was, of course, impossible). Some blame the woman for desiring this exact thing, but The Torah: A Woman’s Commentary on this verse says: ‘Those who criticize the woman argue that the wish to be like God—a usurpation of divine power—prompts her to transgress God’s command. The next verse, however, debunks this claim by offering a rare biblical description of a person’s motive. Hers includes a desire for wisdom.’