Life & Knowledge

[Angelo_Michael]

In John 17:3, eternal life is linked with knowledge of God and Christ;

John 17:
1: These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
2: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
3: And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

yet, in Genesis 2:17, knowledge [of good and evil] is associated with death:

Genesis 2:
15: And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16: And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

**So, it appears that knowledge, in and of itself, is not harmful; only that what the knowledge is of, and where that knowledge comes from, may be.

Therefore, knowledge is as a “double-edged sword”, in that it can cause life and death, is it not?

And, if so, how does this contrast impact the universal aspect(s) of knowledge; and is knowledge [truly] dependent upon any mortal system of, e.g., cognition?**

 

[chessmane4e5]

A good post for discussion. I see 3 things

1. The knowledge of good and evil in Genesis is a specific knowledge. Adam and Eve had knowledge ( I assume of everything) except they did not have knowledge of good and evil.
2. Your post seems to re-affirm what is taught about the Old and New Testament, namely, the Old Testament is about death (sin) the New Testament is about life.
3. Knowledge is a double edged sword. For a sin to be mortal, 3 conditions must be met.
   a. Grave Matter
   b. Full Knowledge
   c. Deliberate consent

 

[Wesley7]

It seems it has more to do with philosophy,sophiology and how things work.

 

[Joe_5859]

Keep in mind, too, that with the “knowledge of good and evil” it isn’t as though Adam and Eve had no idea whatsoever what was good or what was evil. What the prohibition basically meant is that Adam and Eve could do anything they wanted, but the one thing they could not do was to take it upon themselves to define what is good and evil.

When you think about it, this is what all sin does. We presume to know better than God what is good and evil by calling evil things good and good things evil. Just pick up a newspaper; this happens everyday.

To add some more things to consider (), one might also make the distinction between “knowledge” and “wisdom”. And let’s not forget what “knowing” was a euphemism for in many biblical passages.

 

[Angelo_Michael]

One difference (between knowledge of God and Christ, and knowledge of good and evil,) that I’ve been focusing on, is that knowledge of God and Christ is more like an absolute; whereas knowledge of good and evil is [as] an exercise in relativity and judgment.

Nevertheless, there may exist some relative aspects in knowing both God and Christ; yet also there exists unity, and this, again, would contrast with the division necessitated by separating/discerning good and/from evil.