Dr. Dylan Johnson

In fact, it doesn't appear until chapter four.

So another chapter later after Cain and Abel, we're there.

We're very clear.

It's about sin.

So historical critical scholars, we've gone in different directions in interpreting this story.

And we focus on a couple of themes.

One is wisdom, because again, that's a key theme mentioned many times in the text.

The other is life or eternal life.

And the other is the interface, the relationship, and the difference between being human and being divine.

And that's what the story is about.

Right.

So if we start from the perspective of wisdom, when we first encounter the man and the woman, she's not named Eve yet,

As I said, they are essentially childlike in their description in the garden.

They don't understand, and we often interpret the knowledge of good and evil as morality.

But in other descriptions that use the exact same phrasing, such as the book of Deuteronomy, it's clear that when you come to a certain age, you gain that knowledge.

So they really are childlike before that knowledge arrives to them.

So that's one level.

The other people who are typically described as possessing the knowledge of good and evil are kings specifically.

And there's a certain theme, I think, running through this as well that Adam and Eve or the man and Eve are royal figures in certain respects.

Because, first off, they're in a garden.