Okay, so I really started this thread because of the following post that seems to paint Knowledge as being the problem...
If I'm understanding correctly that knowledge here was a problem, then I disagree. Knowledge was not the problem, but rather the issue was simple disobedience. Adam and Eve simply did not follow directions. They did their will over God's will. If this is not the case, then that gets into the 2nd question in the OP, as in, why did God put something bad (the Tree of good and evil) in the garden to begin with?
The problem of the forbidden fruit is not knowledge per se.
Knowledge in and of itself is is not bad mouthed in the Bible.
In fact even knowledge of good and evil is not bad mouthed in the Bible.
Independence and rebellion against the eternal ultimate authority of creation's Govermor is condemned.
And God seems to hate death more than He hates sin.
The problem is two fold. An illustration first:
If a mother warns her child not to drink out of a bottle that has poison but the child does anyway, two problems arise.
1.) The child has transgressed the command of the parent rejecting her authority.
2.) The child has received into it something poisoness destroying them from within.
First Adam transgressed the command of God. He moved from a neutral and innocent position to a position of disobedience.
Secondly Adam was united with God's enemy. Satan's nature infested him, polluted him. The Satanic nature of sin attached itself to Adam like a cosmic parasite.
Adam chose independence. He followed the evil one who was originally created with such perfect wisdom abd beauty, the Anointed Cherub, the Daystar. But this original wise, beautiful, knowledgeable one too the lead in the universe to rebel against his Creator.
Concerning this being the prophet Ezekiel says by way of the "prophetic past" of pre-Adamic times -
Ezekiel 28:12 - Thus says the Lord Jehovah, O you who sealed up perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty,
Think about it. Originally Satan was a created being who summed up perfection. He was wise and perfect in beauty.
Who could have been more humble, more attractive, more insightful, and more glorious? He had much knowledge as a creature.
Verse 15 - You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you.
He came out of the shoot with this perfection from the moment he was created. Probably he was the highest being God created.
Verse 17 - Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness.
This all beautiful being, full of wisdom, knowledge, and so close to God originate SELF love and took ALL of those positive attributes to be the antithesis of God.
So the root cause of his corruption was independence and revolt. All that positive characteristics he turned to be "another" Most High, an advasary within God's kingdom.
The advent of more than one will arriving in the universe followed. And a triangular situation developed. God on one side, Satan on the other side. And now a new creature was created - man. Man was place inbetween the two sources to choose one source or the other.
The two sources of being were:
God represented by
"the tree of life" and Satan represented by "the tree of [death]" aka - the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
In between these two mutually exclusive sources of existence was the neutral innocent creature man.
Adam had much knowledge. He had to superintend over God's creation. How could he not have been endowed with knowledge?
Adam was also the highest created human being.
But there was a line in the sand that he was told not to cross. That was taking into himself the forbidden fruit.
He could think about it, talk about it, make a poem about it, or discuss it. He was forbidden to EAT of it.
And when he ATE of it he transgressed the holiness, righteousness, and glory of God who is eternal perfection.
And he took into himself the nature of sin being united with the rebel who invented independence from God.
Thereafter he was excluded from taking the life of God into his created vessel - represented by
"the tree of life."
Genesis 3:22-24 -
And Jehovah God said, Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever — Then Jehovah God . . . at the east of the garden of Eden He placed the cherubim and a flaming sword which turned in every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
A three-fold barrier seperated man from God from which he must be saved. And the rest of the Bible is the story of how God does that.
The
cheribum standing for the glory of God. Man fell short of the glory of God.
The
sword standing for the righteousness of God. Man fell short of the righteous requirement of God.
The
flame of the flaming sword stands for the holiness of God. Man is polluted with a foreign infestation rendering him unholy.
Instead ofbeing united with divine life Adam united himself and all his descendents with Satan, death, and the sinning nature.
Any knowledge of good and evil could not overcome this power working within man dragging him along with Satan's revolt.
Eventually God as a man must come to solve the problem of man's seperation from God. Christ on our behalf met the need of God's righteousness, God's glory, God's holiness.
And Christ brings man back to the dispensing of the Person of divine life into the created vessel of human life.
In human history Who else besides Jesus of Nazareth is a testimony of what humanity united with God as life looks like?
