Nielsen’s Nook

III. Wisdom: knowing good and evil

A. Conceptually Wisdom

The writer of Hebrews warns his audience against apostasy, encouraging us towards maturity and wisdom, that we might have “discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” (Heb 5:14) This is a call to seek wisdom. This is substantiated throughout the scriptures.

B. The Tree was not Evil in Itself

If the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil bore the fruit of wisdom, it is not something that is bad in and of itself. If it was then we have a God who created evil which is contrary to scripture. The God revealed in the bible is holy. Evil and wickedness are pursued hotly and consumed fiercely by the Lord.

C. Review of what’s been said

1. Broadly speaking, we live in a sacramental world that is related to us by means of covenant.
2. ‘Sacramental’ here means that God uses outward/physical means to communicate spiritually to us
3. We were created for godly wisdom and communing life with God.

II. Covenantal Framework

A. Covenantal Implications in a Sacramental World

Broadly speaking we live in a sacramental world that is related to us by means of covenant (WCF 7.1). So if we do not understand Adam and Eve’s relationship as creatures to their Creator and his Creation, these two trees in the midst of the Garden of Eden will not make any sense.

1. Covenantal: divine, personal condescension

Covenant is a word that we use often in the Presbyterian and Reformed tradition. It is a biblical term and one that has been developed theologically for thousands of years. The Westminster Confession of Faith describes covenant as the expression of “voluntary condescension on God’s part” in which he reveals to us something of who he is, what he requires of us, and what the consequences are for obedience and disobedience.

Adam and Eve operated in a context of covenant. God said to Adam, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you do, you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) God had condescended to Adam, explaining clearly the parameters of the covenant and clearly enunciating the penalty for
disobedience. What is promised implicitly but clearly here is that if Adam were to obey, he would receive the life promised to him in the tree first named, the tree of life.

I had said just a moment ago that “Broadly speaking we live in a sacramental world that is related to us by means of covenant.” I hope you see how the circumstances of how Adam and Eve were related to God were indeed covenantal. Now, I want to help you understand what I mean when I say that we live in a sacramental world.

2. Sacramental: physical means of a spiritual communication

As Protestants we believe that the scriptures teach us that there are only two sacraments, baptism and the Lord’s Supper or Eucharist. A sacrament, according to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, is an outward or physical means, whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption.[1]

Now, I am not implying that all of creation communicates to us the benefits of redemption. What I am saying is that God uses physical or outward means to communicate spiritually to us. In psalm 19 we find evidence for this. God uses the heavens to communicate to us something of the spiritual reality of his glory.

B. The Sacramental Nature of the Trees

While all of nature tells us unspeakably much about the Creator, these two trees in the midst of the Garden of Eden were physical symbols being used by God in the context of covenant to communicate a spiritual reality. So in this broad sense of the term, the trees are sacramental.

C. Probation of Humanity in the Garden

Had Adam and Eve obeyed the prohibition God had given not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, there is reason to believe that the tree would have “played a role in a very different sort of transformation.” [2]

D. Destiny

To say that there would have been a “different sort of transformation” is to say that God did not create human beings for failure and fig leaves. Our destiny is not dark knowledge and cheap existence, but bright wisdom and thick life.

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[1] See WSC#88.

[2] William N. Wilder, “Illumination and Investiture: The Royal Significance of the Tree of Wisdom in Genesis 3,” The Westminster Theological Journal 68.1, no. Spring (2006): 52.

The following is my rendering of the main texts for this series on the Tree of Wisdom in Genesis 2.

(8) And YHWH God [1] planted a garden in Eden in the east [2] and there he placed the man [3] that he had fashioned. [4]

(9) And out of the ground YHWH God caused to sprout [6] every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food. Now in the midst of the garden were the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

…

(15) And YHWH God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep watch over it.

(16) And YHWH God commanded the man saying, “From every tree of the garden you may surely eat.

(17) But from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you are not to eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will surely die. [6]

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1. Kidner notes that YHWH God (yehwah ‘elohim, יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים) is a “rare, almost unique, double name” used. (Genesis, 58)

2. The eastern region, the east. Refers to where the Garden was relative to something - i.e., east of what? Perhaps east of Sinai where the Israelites were with Moses.

3. The man or human being (ha’adam, הָאָדָם ) is in connection to the earth, ground or land (ha’adamah, הָאֲדָמָה ).

4. he had fashioned, formed, create out of existing material.

5. To sprout or have grow (tsamah, צָמַח ). This word looks back to Genesis 2:5 where “no bush of the field was in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up.” Now in contrast trees had sprung up, not mere small shrubs.

6. The two absolute constructions in vv 16 and 17 layout a stark contrast. It is God who caused all the fruitful trees to grow that there may be trees from which the man might surely eat (’acal to’cel, אָכֹל תֹּאכֵל). There is clear picture here of God both creating and sustaining the life of the man. In contrast the absolute construction used in verse 17 follows. The man may surely eat from any tree excepting one. God’s intention is not at this time to sustain the life of the man by the eating of this tree’s fruit. Consequently, if the man were to assert himself against YHWH God’s will here there would be certain death, he would surely die (mot tamut, מוֹת תָּמוּת).