3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
You may recall that back in 3:5, the serpent asserted that God had lied to Adam and Eve about the tree of knowledge being deadly because God was afraid that they would eat from it and become like gods, knowing good and evil. And this verse is basically God admitting that the serpent was exactly right.
So, in summary. God lies. Serpent tells the truth and explains God's motives in lying. God gets mad and punishes everyone. No wonder we commonly consider the serpent evil.
Now God is afraid again about man, specifically that Adam will eat from the tree of life and live forever. He doesn't here seem particularly concerned about Eve, despite the fact that she ate first from the tree of knowledge.
Here's a question: to whom is God speaking? He says "One of us". This implies that the "gods" the serpent hinted at are real; that God is not a lonely being, but one of a class.
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A lot of monotheists will look at this and say its an error in translation. "There couldn't possibly be other Gods."
ReplyDeleteGod could have been talking about the angels, or even the devil. Its all subjective belief about who God was talking about or to. Other Gods perhaps, angels (who haven't been mentioned yet in the Bible I am guessing).
So why would God want us not to know good from evil, or even knowledge. Is god saying that knowledge is evil, or by being knowledgeable, we become Gods in our own rights?
The serpent said that if we knew good and evil, we would be "like gods". And God said we were "like us". It all depends on what the required attributes for godhood are. If it's just knowing right from wrong, that's a pretty low bar.
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