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The man has become like one OF US in knowing good and evil

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tonychanyt

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The serpent spoke to Eve in Ge 3:

1 The serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.
Click to expand...
The serpent was like God in that he knew good and evil. He tempted Eve (and Adam):

5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Click to expand...
and you will be like God,
כֵּֽאלֹהִ֔ים (kê·lō·hîm)
Preposition-k | Noun - masculine plural

The serpent and God had the ability to decide for themselves morality.

After the fall:

22a Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.”
Click to expand...
like one
כְּאַחַ֣ד (kə·’a·ḥaḏ)
**Preposition-k | Number - masculine singular Strong's 259: United, one, first

Earlier, the preposition-k was used in "like God". Here, we have one prepositioned word after another.

of Us,
מִמֶּ֔נּוּ (mim·men·nū)
Preposition | first person common plural
Strong's 4480: A part of, from, out of

My translation:

Behold, the man has become like one from/of us in knowing good and evil.
Click to expand...
Adam has become a being like us in knowing good and evil. He too has the ability to determine what is good and what is evil.

New Living Translation:

Then the LORD God said, “Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!”
Click to expand...
If they lived forever, they would be even more like God while having moralities that were different from God's. God would not allow that. He expelled Adam and Eve from access to the tree of life. As long as a person has an independent morality different from God's, he will die eventually.

Did first person common plural in H4480-מִמֶּ֔נּוּ refer to multiple gods?

I don't think so.

Could H259-כְּאַחַ֣ד refer to a member of the divine council?

It could, but I don't see a great need for that interpretation.
 
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KevinT

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tonychanyt said:
The serpent spoke to Eve in Ge 3:

1 The serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.

The serpent was like God in that he knew good and evil. He tempted Eve (and Adam):
Click to expand...

I generally agree with this helpful post. But I think your conclusion that the serpent was "like God in that he knew good and evil" is not supported by the text you gave. It could be that the serpent (who we know to be the devil) only knew evil. In the text about the King of Tyre (Ezekiel 28), it seems to indicate that Lucifer was a holy angel that rebelled and turned away from God. So I do think that Satan, the power behind the serpent, did know good vs evil. And while that might make him "like God" in that one regard, it gave me pause to read this line.

I know I'm just being nit-picky...

Thanks for all the careful work you do on these posts.

Best wishes,

KT
 
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KevinT

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tonychanyt said:
The serpent knew what was evil but did not know what was good?
Click to expand...
Yes. Even a toddler or young child can know how to do things wrong. But it takes the wisdom of years and being a parent to know how to do things right.

I think you are saying that the serpent knew it was choosing evil instead of good. I'm thinking of that "knowing good" means understanding all the ways that things go wrong, how to deal with it etc etc. All the kind of information that only God has. Kind of like when Jesus said that only God is good.

Mark 10:18 Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.
Click to expand...

I don't want to make a big deal about this. I know I was being pedantic.



KT
 
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tonychanyt

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KevinT said:
Yes. Even a toddler or young child can know how to do things wrong. But it takes the wisdom of years and being a parent to know how to do things right.
Click to expand...
I approach the question of knowing good and evil from the inner conscience of a person, not his external behavior. A toddler acts selfishly but I do not attribute that as an evil thought from his conscience. They are in the process of developing their functional moral compass. One day, they will be old enough to decide to choose to do evil against their conscience.
 
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Ace777

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tonychanyt said:
Adam has become a being like us in knowing good and evil. He too has the ability to determine what is good and what is evil.
Click to expand...
"Or do you not know that saints will judge the world?" 1 Corinthians 6 2
How could we judge the world if we did not know good and evil?
 
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DennisF

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and you will be like God,
כֵּֽאלֹהִ֔ים (kê·lō·hîm)
Preposition-k | Noun - masculine plural

My First Law of Bible study is to not trust the translators. It is not that they are sinister but that finding the right sense in translation is very difficult. Elohim in Hebrew is plural and means gods (including Yahweh) yet theologians have a field day with this word, contorting it into a singular noun. When recognized that elohim in Genesis 1:1 is plural, then it is not necessary to contrive hollow speculations about the Trinity for the plural pronoun that appears a few verses later ("Let us make man ...). To some Christians this would be heretical, yet no major feature of the creation account changes except that Yahweh's project - and was it not a huge one indeed? - involved many of his subordinates, the elohim. The Devil, originally in Yahweh's upper management, might have been one of them until the falling out with Yahweh over how much free will should be given adam.
 
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