tree of knowledge of good and evil

(Bible) Old Testament the tree in the Garden of Eden bearing the forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve ate, thus incurring loss of primal innocence (Genesis 2:9; 3:2–7)

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

tree′ of knowl′edge of good′ and e′vil

the tree in the Garden of Eden bearing the forbidden fruit that was tasted by Adam and Eve. Gen. 2:17; 3:6–24. Also called tree′ of knowl′edge.

[1535]

References in periodicals archive

Genesis 3:17 says that a consequence of Adam and Eve's eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was the need to work to eat rather than by living off the land as animals in nature did, and still do.

We've come a long way since Adam, Eve

According to legend, the wood of an aspen tree was used to make the cross on which Christ was crucified; Jonny Wilkinson smiles at the crowds during the England Rugby World Cup team victory parade in LondonMiddle row, Canadian carver Guy Beauregard works on his sculpture 'Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil' during preparations for the Ice World Festival in Luebeck, northern Germany; a worker in front of the rising moon as he climbs down from a new electricity pylon near Frankfurt, central Germany; one of the first cars leaves the M6 Toll, Britain's first pay-as-you-go motorwayBottom row, A members of Iraq's Civil Defence Corp (ICDC ) graduating after 21 days training in a ceremony at the military base in Tikrit, Iraq; Blue in concert at the NEC

Week in pictures

The tree is called "the tree of knowledge" not because it contains knowledge in itself or even because desire for knowledge leads to eating it, but because knowledge of good and evil necessarily follows from the act of disobedience: Milton says elsewhere that "[i]t was called the tree of knowledge of good and evil from the event"--"event" here carrying its Latin meaning "outcome" (Christian Doctrine 993).

A darker ignorance: C. S. Lewis and the nature of the fall

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