Cecil - you posted a question back in 2006

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

A related question: what’s meant by the “knowledge of good and evil”?

Ethical discrimination, knowing right from wrong. One problem with this interpretation: if Adam and Eve had no knowledge of right and wrong before eating the fruit, how would they know disobedience was wrong?

My take on the answer: They didn’t know it was wrong. They didn’t sin. The Catholic use of “the original sin” is incorrect. If you look in the Bible, it only talks twice about Adam’s choice. Both times it says Adam transgressed. The difference being that sin is when you know the will of God, understand between good and evil, and still show to go against God’s will. Transgressions are either (1) not knowing God’s will and going against it. For example a head hunter might kill per his tribe’s beliefs but it isn’t a sin unless he knows God doesn’t want him to do that. Or (2) not knowing between good and evil. A 2 year old is not a sinner if he takes a cookie after dad says no. His eyes haven’t been opened yet. A mentally handicapped person or child that picks up a gun and kills someone can’t be considered sinners.

2

A link to the question “Cecil posed” would be helpful, so we know what you’re talking about.

3

I think the column referred to is Was the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden an apple?

6

Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, ChiefSadler, we’re glad to have you with us. You’ve probably seen (so you know for future) that it’s helpful to other posters to provide a link to the column you’re discussing: there are so many. No biggie, we all learn and grow.

The Jewish view of “knowledge of good and evil” is Cecil’s third bullet: that’s an expression, like we would say, “from A to Z” or like our parents said “from soup to nuts,” meaning everything in between. That’s the sense in which it is used in I Kings 3:9, for instance.

And, by the way, I don’t find the word “transgressed” or “sinned” anywhere in Genesis Chapter 3. God says [paraphrasing]: Because you did what I told you not to do, here’s your punishment. Nothing about sin, nor transgression.

Also, be careful of using English to distinguish. Hebrew has many, many words for “sin” and English has fewer, so translations can be sloppy. I’d be careful about drawing conclusions based on an English translation, because you can probably find a different translation that won’t support those conclusions.