I'm late to this discussion and have not read through every response, but I'm surprised that I haven't really seen anyone point out some seemingly obvious things about the passage in question.
v4-5 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
v7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
This is the scripture text. It doesn't give us many details. But the problem is that we have added a LOT of details by our traditional understanding of what it means. Here's what I mean...
what exactly did Adam and Even "not know" before eating the fruit. The serpent tells them if they eat the fruit they will know the difference between good and evil... do we accept this?
I've highlighted a significant problem in your post here...
that's NOT what the bible says!
Everyone seems to assume that "knowing good and evil" = "know the
difference between good and evil."
But that's not what it means!
As it turns out, the word "knowing" is the same word used later in the bible for "Adam
knew his wife and she conceived."
In other words, to "know" is to know by personal experience. It's to have intimate personal knowledge of something.
Up to that point, Adam and Eve had never experienced evil. They had only known "good." The huge change in store for them was in to experience evil
in addition to good ("knowing good AND evil").
The assumption that they knew the
difference between good and evil falls apart immediately within the narrative itself... for they chose nothing BUT "evil" after eating the fruit!
- They covered their bodies.
- They hid from God.
- They blamed someone else when confronted about their own sin.
None of these things were "good." They were misguided at best and utterly stupid at worst.
After they ate it, they knew they were naked.
It's easy to read the account and assume that they "knew they were naked" as if that "knowing" came as a result of eating the fruit somehow. But that understanding ignores the question that God asked in Genesis 3:11... "Who
told you that you were naked?"
God never asks a question He doesn't already know the answer to. Therefore, we must conclude that if God asked a "who" question, it must have a "who" answer.
Someone told them that they were "naked." And the ONLY "who" it could possibly be is Satan.
Therefore, the only real conclusion we can derive from the Bible text itself is that the reason they were even thinking about being "naked" was that it was an idea that Satan himself planted in their minds.
Something else to think about... before that "telling," nakedness as a concept didn't even exist... for there was
nothing that did not live exactly as God created it... plant, animal, or human. There was no reason for the word "naked" to exist because there was no such thing as clothing.
being naked is neither good/evil yet Adam and Eve knew they were naked after eating the fruit and before it seems they did not. To me this seems to be about either shame or the lust of being naked that they experienced. They always knew their bodies weren't covered but something was different after eating the fruit that uncovered bodies meant something else.
As I said, the text itself leads us to the conclusion that they had listened to Satan about being "naked" (a term and concept he had to invent on the spot).
so how does Adam and Eve knowing they were naked connect with them knowing good and evil? if they didn't know good and evil how were they to know that following God was good and following the serpent was evil?
Again, the "knowing" was not about distinguishing or recognizing "evil," but rather first-hand experiencing of evil (in addition to good).
And sadly, once they experienced evil, it seemed to be the only thing they chose thereafter.
There was nothing wrong with their created state... and nothing
became wrong with their created state when they sinned. That notion came from Satan... not the fruit, and not God!
Why would Satan care? Because Adam and Eve were made in God's image. Satan--who wanted to be "like God"--used his words to influence Adam and Eve to be ashamed of their own image-bearing bodies.
The naked human body is NOT a problem to God. It's literally His self-portrait, crafted by His own hands. God does not hate nudity... Satan does. And since the very first day of his influence on humans, he's been distorting what the unclad human form means.
Satan's doctrine about the body has so thoroughly pervaded modern Christian thinking that our eyes are unable to even read and understand the story of the fall correctly... we--like Adam and Eve--have listened to Satan's lies that the naked human form is a problem.
Isaiah 5:20 - "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil"
Yet we look right here in the account of the fall and--like Satan and Adam and Eve--we call good (the naked human form as created by God and described as "very good" - see Genesis 1:31) "evil."