A curse or a blessing?

[Valke2]

The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: For learning
wisdom
and discipline;
For understanding words of discernment;
For acquiring the discipline for success,
Righteousness, justice and equity…"
(Proverbs 1:1-3)

HAFTARAT MIKKETZ
(I Kings 3:15-4:1)
When all Israel heard the decision that the king [Solomon] had
rendered,
they stood in awe of the king; for they saw that he possessed divine
wisdom to execute justice… (I Kings 3:28)

Despite the fact that humanity’s capacity for knowledge originates from sin in the Garden of Eden, wherein Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge, the Rabbis clearly felt that human wisdom is a sacred gift from God; it is a divine blessing.

 

[water]

Despite the fact that humanity’s capacity for knowledge originates from sin in the Garden of Eden

I am not agreed with this. Adam and Eve felt guilty after eating the fruit, this does not mean knowledge originated from here. Had they not known their God before eating the fruit - knowing is a kind of knowledge. It was a curse for not obeying the Lord.

Knowing God is a kind of blessing not a curse. Knowing bad things is also a blessing - it is for us to stay away from sin. If God had not allowed us to recognize our wrong doings, how much more could Satan fool us?

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Actually, the human capacity for knowledge existed before Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

In choosing to disobey God, Adam and Eve were not using that capacity for knowledge; they were not trying to ‘learn more’, but to circumvent learning, to ‘cheat’ by trying to ‘become like God’, and to put their desires above those of God. And it was not knowledge itself that was the curse, but the disobedience to God which gave the human race that fatal taint toward not ‘knowledge’ of evil, but attraction to and seduction by evil, that we call concupisence and which is the ‘original sin’.

 

[Mr.Ex_Nihilo]

Actually, the human capacity for knowledge existed before Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

In choosing to disobey God, Adam and Eve were not using that capacity for knowledge; they were not trying to ‘learn more’, but to circumvent learning, to ‘cheat’ by trying to ‘become like God’, and to put their desires above those of God. And it was not knowledge itself that was the curse, but the disobedience to God which gave the human race that fatal taint toward not ‘knowledge’ of evil, but attraction to and seduction by evil, that we call concupisence and which is the ‘original sin’.

I agree with you Tantum ergo. It’s not like Adam and Eve were without knowledge.

And even before Eve ate from the forbidden fruit of good and evil, she already peceived that it was ‘good for food’ before she even reached out for it…
Genesis 3:6:

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

In other words, even before she partook in the fruit, she was already conscious of wherether she could consider something good or not-- even if she was incorrect about her perception partially based on the serpent’s deception.

Despite some claims to the contrary, I highly doubt that Adam and Eve didn’t actually know that their actions were good or bad before they partook in the tree. They knew it was bad-- that’s why God was allowed to pass judgement on them.

If they didn’t know it was bad, God would not have been justified in judging them for something they could not fairly discern to have been bad in the first place.

Likewise, some might say that Adam and Eve did a good thing by partaking in the tree-- they might evenl claim that this event made humanity higher than the animals. But that’s not true either-- because God often points to the animals as being more obedient than humanity. And, very often, the animals are even praised for their innate knowledge of God whereas humanity is often scolded by God for not knowing him at all.

 

[Valke2]

Actually, the human capacity for knowledge existed before Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

In choosing to disobey God, Adam and Eve were not using that capacity for knowledge; they were not trying to ‘learn more’, but to circumvent learning, to ‘cheat’ by trying to ‘become like God’, and to put their desires above those of God. And it was not knowledge itself that was the curse, but the disobedience to God which gave the human race that fatal taint toward not ‘knowledge’ of evil, but attraction to and seduction by evil, that we call concupisence and which is the ‘original sin’.

The use of wisdom came after the curse. THere’s a difference between knowning right and wrong and knowing good and evil.