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NASB | Genesis 2:16 The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may freely (unconditionally) eat [the fruit] from every tree of the garden; |
Bible Question:
Bible records the fall of Adam in Genesis 3. The first portion of the chapter explains the fall and the response of God. The end is more than a puzzle to me when it comes to verses 22: And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." Seriously, I have difficulty to understand and accept the concept of Original sin. The question to me is: Why should I be punished for someone’s wrong doing? If the sin of Adam affected me without my knowledge, why the salvation Christ gives not affects me that same way? Now keeping these questions away, now let’s concentrate on Verse 22. The phrase “Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil(KJV)” brings a lot of question into the discussion. This phrase implies that the ability to distinguish between good and evil came into human beings only after they committed sin by eating from the forbidden tree; which also means that human beings were not having the ability to distinguish good and evil before they disobeyed. Then, when the choice was made to eat from forbidden tree, they decided without “the ability to distinguish between good and evil”. If that is the case, how can they be held responsible for the choice which came out of a natural intellectual vacuum which they inherited from birth, “without the decisive ability to know good and evil”. If they have to choose right, they should have the knowledge of good and bad before hand. Otherwise, they can’t be blamed for their choices. Can someone explain me what does it mean really? |
Bible Answer: Melody, Welcome to the forum. I believe humbledbyhisgrace offered a simple answer that really does address your question. I do want to make an observation though about your post. You wrote of Adam and Eve: "how can they be held responsible for the choice which came out of a natural intellectual vacuum which they inherited from birth, “without the decisive ability to know good and evil”. One thing to take into consideration here is that Adam and Eve did not have a "birth" and "inherited" nothing. They were created by God without human parents. Again, there was no "inheritance". Where you focus on intellect, we need to consider that the only intellectual functoining that they possessed prior to their willful disobedience to God, was that which God had given them. That alone serves to confirm that their intellectual functioning was sufficient. Rember, we are talking about a created being that was given charge over all of God's earthly creation. As humbled pointed out, God didn't say, don't eat or else. He said they would die if they ate of it. There was no need of the knowledge of good and evil. All the information they needed was clearly understood. They knew God as their creator. They knew that they were forbiden to eat from that particular tree. They knew what the consequences of doing so would be. They chose to believe the serpent instead. Hope this is helpful, Jeff |
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Questions and/or Subjects for Gen 2:16 | Author | ||
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Emmaus | ||
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disciplerami | ||
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umagumadog | ||
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tmj | ||
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melody_rajan | ||
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humbledbyhisgrace | ||
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jlhetrick | ||
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brenda2222 | ||
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Moning |