Eden tree?

[Tellyontellyon]

Why did God put the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden if it was never part of his plan that man should eat of it?

 

[Sabertooth]

No one knows. After getting Saved and reading the Bible, we can begin to formulate guesses, but we won't actually know until 1 John 3:2 happens.

 

[d taylor]

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Man had to have a test to be confirmed in his righteousness. If after a determined time, by God, that Adam did not eat of the tree he would have been confirmed in his perfect created state. After that he (Adam) would have not been able to sin and die as a result of sin. I believe satan and the angels may have had a similar act of confirmation.

 

[Jonaitis]

Why did God put the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden if it was never part of his plan that man should eat of it?

The narrative of Genesis may give the impression that God simply tested Adam with a trivial task, but we find out in the rest of Scripture that this was a divine covenant with the scope of eternal consequences. God promised Adam that, as federal head of his posterity, that is, a representative of the covenant community involved, if he obeyed the command, he would continue to enjoy heaven on earth, as it were. Man, by this story, was originally in communion with God and morally unblemished. It was the kind of world that men wish existed now. However, he threatened that upon breaking this stipulation, he, along with his posterity, that is, all of mankind, would be condemned. The tree itself did not impart knowledge. The name signified what would happen upon eating it. Once Adam breached the commandment, he understood what he "shouldn't," because he rebelled. He became aware of folly and estrangement, and his actions afterward displayed it when he hid from God and blamed his wife. He wasn't perfect, but innocent, and you know what it means when your innocence is taken. This is what the tree's name signified.

Now, this story explains that this was actually decreed to have happened by God, in order to bring about the Savior. Sure, it may sound that God set up Adam and mankind to fail, but there is a wider scope in relation to the Savior and His covenant that this makes it necessary, I suppose.

 

[BobRyan]

Why did God put the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden if it was never part of his plan that man should eat of it?

In a free will system - testing , setting up conditions - is key.

For robots it is not all that valuable --- but in the free will system it is very valuable.

 

[HTacianas]

Why did God put the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden if it was never part of his plan that man should eat of it?

If you look at it in a different perspective you'll find that through eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, mankind formed a conscience. In forming a conscience mankind had the ability to determine between good and evil. It was mankind's destiny to choose good, but instead chose evil. It is the choosing of evil over good that caused the fall of mankind. Mankind is in a fallen state due to his own choice.

 

[timewerx]

If you cross-reference Eden and the Trees with the New Testament and Book of Enoch, we might find the whole account is not literal.

Jesus for example, is not just a character but also a place (John 14:3).

The Tree of Life is also Jesus so it becomes a character. But the Tree of Life in the Book of Enoch is also a place. A place that is far far way and also extremely vast as big as a galaxy.

 

[Tolworth John]

Why did God put the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden if it was never part of his plan that man should eat of it?

Freedom means having a choice, if one has no choice there is no freedom.

As Henry Ford said, ' You can have any colour car you like, so long as it is black!' No freedom to choose a colour.

 

[Halbhh]

Why did God put the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden if it was never part of his plan that man should eat of it?

And He planned even before the World to send Christ to save us also....

So, it seems we are here to give us our needed place to learn -- to learn by experience, and to make choices and learn to better trust in God.

While some perhaps are born already ready to totally trust God in an enduring way and to love everyone....

Many or most of us seem to need to learn more about those by experiences and some suffering and seeing the real wrongs in evil by seeing it first hand, so that we can reject evil and learn to trust in God more firmly and fully, forever....

 

[drich0150]

Why did God put the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden if it was never part of his plan that man should eat of it?

who said it was never part of God's plan?

 

[Confused-by-christianity]

Why did God put the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden if it was never part of his plan that man should eat of it?

I thought most of that stuff was all metaphorical.

 

[jayem]

I thought most of that stuff was all metaphorical.

For sure. The Adam and Eve tale is an origin myth. All cultures have such stories to explain why life is plagued by difficulty, suffering, and death. And nearly always it’s due to disobedience. Another example is the Pandora legend of the Greeks. She was given a jar by Zeus (it later became a box) and instructed never to open it. Of course, curiosity overwhelmed her. When she opened the jar, she released the demons of hardship, misery, and death into the world. Although, remaining in the jar, at the very bottom, was a beautiful spirit. Who was Hope. I like this myth better the Adam and Even legend.

BTW, isn’t it interesting that the primary disobedient actor in both the Hebrew and Greek stories is a woman? Which tells me that these tales were written by men.

 

[TedT]

Why did God put the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden if it was never part of his plan that man should eat of it?

Preamble:
Have you ever considered a word study of the word to eat ?

Jn 6:47 Truly, truly, I tell you, he who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And this bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh.” In Matthew 26, Jesus used the same figurative language in referring once again to eating His flesh and drinking His blood.

Since Gen 3:15 On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust all the days of your life. eating has been a metaphor for experiencing especially knowledge and understanding. Do we believe that snakes eat dust? Nothing eats dust so this must be a metaphor for the serpent's life.

This metaphor is applied to the law: Psalm 119:103 How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! in which we see eating to refer to his understanding of the great moral strength of the law and its benefits for law keepers.

In Proverbs 9 the call of Wisdom and the seductive lure of Folly's illicit pleasures are both couched in terms of eating:
Wisdom calls:
4 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
To him who lacks judgment she says:
5 “Come, eat my bread,
and drink the wine I have mixed.
6 Leave your folly behind, and you will live;
walk in the way of understanding.”

Folly calls:
17 “Stolen water is sweet,
and bread eaten in secret is tasty!”
and idea that equates eating with experiencing sin or, if you will, you eat sin and ingest it to become a sinner.

But not just sin.
Jesus refers to our coming to (experiencing) redemption in the same metaphor of eating: John 6:27 Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.
Isaiah 55:1 "Come, all of you who thirst, come to the waters; and you without money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk, without money and without cost! The metaphor also includes ideas of learning and understanding doctrine (as well as the idea of experiencing something) as seen in Ezekiel 2:8 But you, son of man, listen to what I tell you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I give you.” 9 Then I looked and saw a hand reaching out to me, and in it was a scroll, 10 which He unrolled before me. And written on the front and back of it were words of lamentation, mourning, and woe.
3:1-4 "Son of man," He said to me, "eat and fill your stomach with this scroll I am giving you." So I ate, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.
and
Revelation 10:10 I took the little scroll from the angel's hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.

Revelation 3:20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. probably refers to more than sharing food and hints at both learning a new understanding of GOD's unity of faith and experiencing HIS heavenly communion.

Conclusion:
In keeping with standard biblical usage of the metaphor of eating to express experiencing something to understand it, it wasn't the knowing the difference between good and evil that caused any problem as such knowledge was necessary to live with GOD but the eating of that knowledge, the experiencing of that knowledge by ingesting and proving it by the practical method of choosing to sin to see if the warnings were true, ie, to test GOD or to rebel against HIS definitions of the reality of the natural and consequences for sinning.