Tree of Knowledge of Tov and Ra

"Okay, here's a question that really interests me (and have never gotten a definitive answer).....so the forbidden fruit imparted some kind of knowledge/awareness. What was it?"

The bible does not state that the fruit imparted any kind of knowledge or awareness. It was simply a tree. The only difference between it and any other tree - was its restriction. Simply put, the command was important, not the tree.

He made a pronouncement decreeing it to be "out-of-bounds" for the human pair - Yhwh's right to determine and set the boundries of existence [tov and ra] for man in order to experience life, versus man's right to determine his own boundries through his own eye as if he were god and creator of himself. And so now we have waited, and watched the results of man - acting as god and creator of himself. The entire creation has suffered because of his self-declared righteousness, ego, and lack of humbleness to simply be what he was created to be. But that point has almost nearly been made - when it is finally made, there will no longer be any doubt whether man is god over himself, or simply a dismal failure at acting as god.

"I know some folks believe it was some kind of sexual awakening"

This route is usually difficult to support, as the command to them as male and female [before the tree episode], was to "be fruitful and become many and fill the earth". Procreation.


".....first thing they do is go from romping like innocent children to covering their genitals and feeling awkward."

The thing to notice is [1] when man was allowing Yhwh to decide tov and ra for his own creation including man, being naked was declared "tov" and they were not ashamed, then [2] once both had already departed from listening to Yhwh and chose to listen to their own eye - selecting their own path, they decided that it was no longer "tov" - but something of which to be ashamed.

There is a noticeable shift in the text as to who was now deciding what the boundries for life were - from Yhwh as god to man - now shifted as man a god to man.

It was their third decision as gods.


Yet others say its a knowledge of 'good and evil'...in the sense that they start judging others (even though there was noone else there to judge).....

Before following through on her own decision to follow her own eye's desire regardless of the results which Yhwh had warned them about, Eve reiterated Yhwh's rule - she knew wrong from right. So did Adam.

They had sufficient knowledge to discern tov from ra regarding their life's existance because Yhwh had instructed them. As their creator and designer, of course he would know how they would function [tov] and how they would not [ra]. Man believes that he is perfectly capable of being the creator and designer of himself.

Let's suppose that a fish was created and designed to live a perfectly fine [tov] life under water. He can swim left, or right, he can mate and reproduce, he can eat, and play, and travel long distances, hide on rock outcropping, sleep when he wants, swim when he wants, do backflips, blow bubbles, chase other fish, and so on. There is only one rule. His creator warns him, do anything you like, just don't leave the water, for if you leave the water, you will die. As long as the fish obeys this one little boundry [remain in the water], he is in perfect balance, and he lives. If one day, he should purposely decide for himself that he does not need to live in water, he is better than that - why should god determine for him what the boundries are afterall - he is fish, immortal, and can act as a god unto himself. And so he begins to see that the land is a much preferable place for him - so he leaps out of the water and flops himself on dry land. Bad move. He shortly learns that he has difficulty breathing and the air and sun are drying out his scales. He flops about - struggles to perhaps get in the water. But he cannot make it.. And so he went from being tov [perfectly functional] to being ra [dysfunctional] - and the results of his decision to depart from the path laid before him by his creator [e.g., khate, he sinned] he now has become ra - and the result? Death. He dies.

Should his god be kind enough to resurrect him back to life - though the fish certainly did not deserve it - he would have learned a very valuable lesson. And so would all of the other fish who witnessed the results of his action to decide all things for himself even when he lacks perfect knowledge to do so.