It is God that created evil. First of all He created it as a choice for man.
Gen.2:9
9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Job 42:11
11 Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold.
12 So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.
13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.
14 And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch.
15 And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.
16 After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations.
17 So Job died, being old and full of days.
Isaiah 45:7
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
This is a very complext statement, However His Word said it and I must believe it.
-Firstly, I am not so quick to debate it because this very same subject has been beat to death in GA, but I will say a few things.
Firstly, God saw all that he had made and said it was, "Good, Good, Good."
God is perfect. Evil is not something as opposed to good, evil is the lack of good. God does not make perfection and imperfection.
God created good and free-will. Evil is free-will rejecting the good and it began with the rebellion of the Devil. It is as if "the moon in love with it's own light, rejected the sun." The moon, the Devil, loved himself so much that he lost all love at all, and it became hate, but hate is not something as opposed to love, it is the absence of love, the absence of light.
So then, evil already existed when he made man but he did not wish man to have to experience evil, but he tests all creatures intended for union with Him. So he gave Adam a test, choose to listen and obey him, and choose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Adam knew it was bad to eat from the tree of Good and Evil because God had told him not to, but he did it anyway. Knowledge is considered experience. When you ask, "Did you 'know' her in the biblical sense," we know what it means, and it means did you experience her. To taste the fruit and touch and eat it is an allusion to the experience of evil. They wanted to know it, and so they ate it.
Gen.2:9
9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
-since the fall of the angels God had intended to continue to use even the fallen angels as His instrument. So then, God used the Devil to test his creation, but even after they failed to resist temptation, he once again brought a greater good from it, namely Christ who became Man for our sake.
Job 42:11
11 Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold.
12 So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.
13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.
14 And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch.
15 And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.
16 After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations.
17 So Job died, being old and full of days.
-there are two types of evil as the Jews understood it and as we understand it today, but the understanding often get's lost in translation.
Here it says the evil God had brought to him. Evil is understood to be suffering as I'll show with the next verse. Sin and suffering are linked and so the Jews understood it, too. Moral evil=sin, Serb evil=suffering.
Isaiah 45:7
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Isaiah 45 (NIV)
7 I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and
create disaster;
I, the LORD , do all these things.
Isaiah 45(NAB)
7
The One forming light and creating darkness,
Causing well-being and
creating calamity;
I am the LORD who does all these
Isaiah 45(ESV)
7I form light and create darkness,
I make well-being and
create calamity,
I am the LORD, who does all these things.
Isaiah 45 (CEV)
7I create light and darkness,
happiness and sorrow.
I, the LORD, do all of this.
-if God created moral evil then we would not be to blame for anything we do and his seeming justice would not be just. God only creates perfection but he cannot create imperfection, it is impossible, and evil is imperfection; good=7, evil=6.
Nonetheless, God allows evil for the sake of a greater good because he allows us to have free-will.
