קוד: Did God (or the biblical writer) change his mind about the knowledge of good and evil? בתנ"ך
סוג: פרטים1
מאת: אבנר רמו
אל:
In the first chapter of the Book of Genesis we read about the creation of the man:
ויברא אלהים את האדם בצלמו, בצלם אלהים ברא אתו -
“And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him” (Gen 1:27).
Few more details about the human that was created by God are found in the following biblical chapter:
וייצר יהוה אלהים את האדם, עפר מן האדמה, ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים; ויהי האדם לנפש - -
חיה.
“Then YHWH God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen 2:7).
It appears that the human “breath of life” or the “human spirit” is related to God’s spirit. However, while the divine has an everlasting spirit, the text is mute about the question whether the human “living soul” existence had a finite duration or was immortal.
We read: ויקח יהוה אלהים את האדם; וינחהו בגן עדן, לעבדה ולשמרה - - - “And YHWH God took the man, and put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” (Gen 2:15).
This information lets us safely assume that for fulfilling these tasks in the garden, man had to have some intelligence and the ability to learn how to carry-out his errands there.
The narrative about the “Garden of Eden” also indicates that the first man and woman could reasonably communicate not only among themselves but also with God (and even with a snake). Although we do not know which language they spoke, it appears that the vocabulary of the first man was large enough to give names לכל הבהמה ולעוף השמים, ולכל חית השדה - - “to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field” (Gen 2:20).
We also read:
ויפל יהוה אלהים תרדמה על האדם ויישן; ויקח אחת מצלעתיו ויסגר בשר תחתנה. -
ויבן יהוה אלהים את הצלע אשר לקח מן האדם לאשה; ויבאה אל האדם. - - - -
ויאמר האדם, זאת הפעם עצם מעצמי ובשר מבשרי; לזאת יקרא אשה, כי מאיש לקחה זאת. -
“And YHWH God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the place with flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which YHWH God had taken from the man, made He a woman, and brought her to the man. And the man said: This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Gen 2:21-23).
It seems that without consulting with the man, or even informing him about the pending operation, God put man under a deep sleep, and took one of the man’s ribs for creating a woman.
The biblical text tells us that in spite of these circumstances the man had sufficient insight to fathom what had happened and immediately realized how this woman was formed. The fact that the man had no prior experience in such matters suggests that his innate intelligence was beyond the trivial.
Yet we also read:
ויצמח יהוה אלהים מן האדמה כל עץ נחמד למראה וטוב למאכל - -ועץ החיים בתוך הגן, ועץ -- - -
הדעת טוב ורע.
“And out of the ground made YHWH 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 the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen 2:9).
ויצו יהוה אלהים על האדם לאמר: מכל עץ הגן אכל תאכל. - -
ומעץ הדעת טוב ורע - -לא תאכל ממנו: כי ביום אכלך ממנו - -מות תמות. -- --
“And YHWH God commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die” (Gen 2:16-17).
As was already indicated in my essay: “Fall of Man” (In: A. Ramu. Seriously, the Bible says so? Amazon, Kindle Edition 2014), it is not known why God grew such unique trees in the Garden, and why He forbade the man from eating from the “tree of knowledge of good and evil.” In this article it was also pointed out that the meaning of אכל תאכל is: “you shall surely eat” and not: “you may freely eat.” It seems that the man who apparently was created with a limited life span (and must have understood the meaning of death) was given the option of gaining immortality by eating from the “tree of life” and that in fact God commanded the man to do so. However, if God desired that the man be immortal we have to wonder why He did not create him as such.
Furthermore, it appears that if the man would have decided to disobey God and eat from the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” in spite of God’s threat of a swift death, he had the intelligence to understand that by eating first from the “tree of life” he could have prevented such a death penalty. The fact that this did not happen suggests that the first man had no intention to disobey God.
We are told that Adam did not perish immediately after eating from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” and in fact reached the ripe old age of nine hundred and thirty years (Gen 5:5). To understand why God did not follow through on his warning about the consequences of eating of the forbidden tree, we have to consider the circumstances of this episode.
We read about the eating incident:
ותרא האשה כי טוב העץ למאכל וכי תאוה הוא לעינים, ונחמד העץ להשכיל, ותקח מפריו -
ותאכל; ותתן גם לאישה עמה ויאכל. -
“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat” (Gen 3:6).
There is no evidence in the text that Adam was present when the woman was conversing with the snake or when she took a fruit of a certain tree. We also do not know whether Adam knew that the fruit that the woman gave him to eat was plucked from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
Even when we later hear God:
ולאדם אמר, כי שמעת לקול אשתך ותאכל מן העץ אשר צויתיך לאמר לא תאכל ממנו - -
“And to Adam He said: Because you had hearkened to the voice of your wife, and had eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying: You shall not eat of it” (Gen 3:17), it seems that while God indicates that indeed Adam ate of the forbidden tree, Adam was not necessarily aware at that time of the fruit’s source. It is not unlikely that only when Adam found that he suddenly had the “knowledge of good and evil” that he realized that the fruit given to him by the woman to eat must have come from “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” While Adam may be blamed for not asking the woman about the source of the fruit that she gave him to eat, his behavior does not indicate that he willfully disobeyed God and therefore deserved a lesser punishment.
Toward the end of the narrative about the “Garden in Eden” we read:
ויאמר יהוה אלהים, הן האדם היה כאחד ממנו לדעת טוב ורע; ועתה פן ישלח ידו ולקח גם -
מעץ החיים, ואכל וחי לעלם.
“And YHWH 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 forever” (Gen 3:22).
The Greek translator wrote here: “perhaps” but it is unlikely that the biblical writer would believe that God was not sure of what the man was contemplating to do, and it is therefore suggested that here פן (pen) is a letter-substitution error of הן (hen) - “surely.” Furthermore, it is implausible that the biblical writer would propose that by eating now from the “tree of life” man could have undone the punishment that God gave him for eating from the forbidden tree (Gen 3:17-19).
Therefore, when we read God’s words to the man:
ארורה האדמה בעבורך, בעצבון תאכלנה כל ימי חייך.
וקוץ ודרדר תצמיח לך; ואכלת את עשב השדה. -
בזעת אפיך תאכל לחם, עד שובך אל האדמה כי ממנה לקחת: כי עפר אתה ואל עפר תשוב. - - -
“Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil shall you eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to you; and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, till you return to the ground; for out of it was you taken; for dust you are, and to dust shall you return” (Gen 3:17-19).
We should consider all the remarks in these verses about the limited life-span of the man as related to the mode of his creation rather than as part of the punishment. By preventing the first man from reaching the “tree of life” God now canceled the option that he previously gave man of becoming immortal.
In the Book of Kings we read about the young King Solomon:
בגבעון נראה יהוה אל שלמה - -בחלום הלילה; ויאמר אלהים, שאל מה אתן לך. - -- -
“In Gibeon YHWH appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said: Ask what I shall give you” (1 Ki 3:5).
Then Solomon’s requested: ונתת לעבדך לב שמע לשפט את עמך, להבין בין טוב לרע - - - “Give Your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil” (1 Ki 3:9).
God response to Solomon’s request:
וייטב הדבר בעיני אדני: כי שאל שלמה את הדבר הזה. -
ויאמר אלהים אליו, יען אשר שאלת את הדבר הזה ולא שאלת לך ימים רבים ולא שאלת לך - - -
עשר, ולא שאלת נפש איביך; ושאלת לך הבין לשמע משפט.
הנה עשיתי כדבריך; הנה נתתי לך לב חכם ונבון, אשר כמוך לא היה לפניך ואחריך לא יקום - -
כמוך.
וגם אשר לא שאלת נתתי לך גם עשר גם כבוד: אשר לא היה כמוך איש במלכים כל ימיך. - - - - -
ואם תלך בדרכי לשמר חקי ומצותי, כאשר הלך דויד אביך - -והארכתי את ימיך. - --
“And the speech pleased Adonai, that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said to him: Because you had asked this thing, and had not asked for yourself long life; neither had asked riches for yourself, nor had asked the life of your enemies; but had asked for yourself understanding to discern justice; Behold, I have done according to your word: lo, I have given you a wise and an understanding heart; so that there had been none like you before you, neither after you shall any arise like to you. And I have also given you that which you had not asked, both riches and honor--so that there had not been any among the kings like to you--all your days. And if you will walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father David did walk, then I will lengthen your days” (1 Ki 3:10-14).
The fact that God was greatly pleased to hear Solomon’s request for “an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil” constitutes a complete transformation in the Divine attitude toward the possible gaining of the “knowledge of good and evil” by the first man