Why would Adam and Eve desire & take from the tree of good & evil?

  • Thread starter Thread starter GodHeals
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
G

GodHeals

Guest
Hi,
Why would Adam and Eve desire & take from the tree of good & evil if they had all that was good? If they walked with God and even had preternatural gifts (which I don’t know much about)? What can be more?
Thank you,
Brian
 
this is a difficult question. i believe there is information in the catechism. certainly, the deceiver had much to do with it, but also pride. Jesus might tell us, we also have everything we need to trust God.
 
Well, satan told them if they ate of that tree they would be like God, knowing the difference between good and evil. So Eve ate. Satan also lied to her saying; ‘No. If you eat that fruit you will not die.’ But eating it brought death to all mankind. So Jesus came and brought te Resurrection.

I have read that Adam ate the fruit ignorantly, because he said to God, ‘The woman whom you gave me, gave me the fruit, and I ate.’ (there’s a theory that Adam did not know this was the forbidden fruit,)

He had the usual christian response, blame the wife, haha

It’s probably just like why do any of us sin and we have all of God’s gifts around us, temptation, disobedience, and the lie from satan that the temptation is a ‘good’ thing without consequences. I agree pride was a part of it, satan told them eating the fruit would make them like God.

However, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich wrote that they were a little ignorant of the the whole thing also. Yes it was an act of disobedience to God. The fruit gave knowledge of good and evil. Meaning we could be tempted and that this disobedience to sin would be passed along the whole bloodline of mankind.

But: St Emmerich believes: they did not know the serpent was satan.
They did not know this would have them kicked out of Eden, and all the other consequences.

On the other side of things:
When the angels disobeyed they immediately lost heaven because angels have more knowledge and wisdom of the eternal consequences due to their higher angelic nature, so the angels knew well what they were doing. There was no excuse for the angels.

Blessed Emmerich said of her visions that if Adam and Eve knew the serpent was satan, and then had listened to him, there would have been no hope of redemption.

Their act was disobedient enough to taint the whole bloodline of mankind with original sin and have the gates of Heaven closed until Jesus could pay the price of the sins of mankind on our behalf though.
GodHeals said:
Hi,
Why would Adam and Eve desire & take from the tree of good & evil if they had all that was good? If they walked with God and even had preternatural gifts (which I don’t know much about)? What can be more?
Thank you,
Brian
Click to expand...
 
They didn’t have access to the beatific vision yet.

There was and is always this idea of “more”…and wanting to usurp God’s role as Lucifer once desired and attempted to do.
 
Eve wanted something more than what she had out of pride. Our life can be filled with good things, but can want more to build ourselves up in our own eyes. The Genesis account speaks of her temptation–“your eyes will be opened and you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5)
I don’t know why Adam sinned. (At least, though, the account shows how his soul fell–as another poster here said, he blamed his wife.)
 
I am no theologian, but I have sometimes wondered whether Adam and Eve lived in a world no different from our own. Maybe it was just the same, with all of the problems we have. But maybe their minds and souls were united with God’s Providence in such a way that they never questioned their condition or sought after anything else. We read of saints who, at least a good part of the time, were like that; who took Jesus’ exhortations to “regard the ravens” or “look at the lilies in the field” literally and accepted everything Providence put in their paths happily.

And so, perhaps everything was acceptable to Adam and Eve. They were in a “paradise of perfect acceptance”, one might speculate. Maybe they got cold, hot, hungry, just as we do, but perfectly accepted that was what God put in their paths for their perfection, just as He tells us that very thing today.And so, when Satan told them they could make up their own minds about what was pleasing and what was not, they took the bait. Perhaps their world didn’t change at all, but perhaps their acceptance of it did. Maybe “knowledge of good and evil” is nothing other than “choice”.

Even death. Our faith holds that death is only a transition; that in reality we never die. Again, there have been saints who saw it exactly that way and did not fear death in the least; embraced it actually.

But we don’t. We rebel against it in a thousand ways.

In short, we chose to be able to rebel against Providence and to choose our “own” good and evil. And practically from birth on, we do it every day.
 
Your question misses a key word in its setup. They did not take from the tree of good and evil, they took instead from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The answer to your question lies within that missing word actually.

If one simply knows not to take from the tree of evil, then that is simple. Don’t eat it’s fruits.
As your question says, why would they do this?

But suppose instead one was offered the ability to discern good from evil itself? To define what is good and evil. That is, to play God. We do this only when we loose faith in God and try to take it all on ourselves. That is what they did. That is what we all do.

That is the meaning of the story of Adam and Eve. It is not a biology text or scientific cosmology text like I see discussed so often by atheists and fundamentalists on this forum.
 
Adam and Eve got tempted by the devil to commit the sins of pride and disobedience. They made the grave mistake of listening to Satan, they wanted to become like gods as he said they would become if they would only eat of the forbidden fruit. The fruit looked good to them and they believed the father of lies rather than God and fell into mortal sin. God bless you.
 
GodHeals said:
Hi,
Why would Adam and Eve desire & take from the tree of good & evil if they had all that was good? If they walked with God and even had preternatural gifts (which I don’t know much about)? What can be more?
Thank you,
Brian
Click to expand...
Perhaps for mostly the same reasons that humans today want more power, honour, celebrity, goods and pleasure than our due in this life.
 
OurLadysServant said:
I have read that Adam ate the fruit ignorantly, because he said to God, ‘The woman whom you gave me, gave me the fruit, and I ate.’ (there’s a theory that Adam did not know this was the forbidden fruit,)

He had the usual christian response, blame the wife, haha
Click to expand...
Read Adam’s response again:
*The woman,
Code: 
whom you gave me
, she gave me the fruit and I ate it.*

Adam didn’t blame the woman. Adam blamed God. :eek: :ouch:

tee
 
GodHeals said:
Hi,
Why would Adam and Eve desire & take from the tree of good & evil if they had all that was good? If they walked with God and even had preternatural gifts (which I don’t know much about)? What can be more?
Thank you,
Brian
Click to expand...
Why do people become alcoholics when real happiness is found in sobriety? When alcoholism leads to innumerable pains and problems?
Why do people have one-night stands, prostitutes, and mistresses, when the ultimate joy between man and woman is in marriage?
Why do so many adolescents and teens in school choose to not try at all rather than to try, when a good schooling is clearly the better option?
Why do juveniles join gangs, when gangs are a source of so much pain for both themselves and others?
Why do people choose to insult others, when they could instead offer them love?
Why do people torment themselves by stewing in anger, frustration, and jealously, rather than falling into the arms of Jesus & Mary and receiving freely-given graces from Heaven?

Inequity is a great mystery. When we sin, we elect our own counsel to exceed God’s counsel.
 
First, one needs to consider that it is the first original human who committed the Original Sin. :doh2: Second, one needs to recognize that the relationship between God the Creator and Adam the creature was not between two equal beings. :doh2: Third, Catholicism teaches that there cannot be two equal Gods.:doh2:

The only way that Adam could remain in his original state of holiness was to live in free submission to his Creator. The nature of that free submission was simply obedience. This we learn from Genesis 2: 15-17 and Genesis 3:11. The tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil signifies that Adam was limited by his creaturely status. The nature of that status was that he had to choose to obey God’s command.

Satan tempted Adam with the words spoken to Eve in Genesis 3:4-5. The temptation claimed to free Adam from the limits of his creaturely status. Freedom from obedience and freedom from the consequence of disobedience was certainly appealing. Adam had the choice to trust God or Satan. Being free like God would require Adam to prefer himself to God and by that very act, Adam scorned his Creator.

Adam chose himself against God and therefore against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good.

Information source. universal Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, paragraphs 396-398.

scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catechism/catechism-of-the-catholic-church/
 
Frankenfurter said:
Your question misses a key word in its setup. They did not take from the tree of good and evil, they took instead from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The answer to your question lies within that missing word actually.

If one simply knows not to take from the tree of evil, then that is simple. Don’t eat it’s fruits.
As your question says, why would they do this?

But suppose instead one was offered the ability to discern good from evil itself? To define what is good and evil. That is, to play God. We do this only when we loose faith in God and try to take it all on ourselves. That is what they did. That is what we all do.
Click to expand...
This. 👍
 
Frankenfurter said:
But suppose instead one was offered the ability to discern good from evil itself?
Click to expand...
Not sure what person your are referring to when you say
“But suppose instead one was offered the ability to discern good from evil itself?”

Obviously, Adam being a fully-complete human knew the difference between good and evil from square one. This knowledge, coming from Adam’s rational spiritual soul, (Genesis 1: 26-27) is why he could freely commit the Original Sin.

Not sure why some people want to demote Adam to a subhuman being. Maybe that is a way of getting around some unpopular Catholic teachings. On the other hand, if Adam dropped his responsibility for obedience to his Creator and instead take on the idea that he was a god who could discern good from evil …he still would know, in advance, that this action would destroy humanity’s original relationship with Divinity aka Original Sin. (Genesis 2: 15-17)
 
GodHeals said:
Hi,
Why would Adam and Eve desire & take from the tree of good & evil if they had all that was good? If they walked with God and even had preternatural gifts (which I don’t know much about)? What can be more?
Thank you,
Brian
Click to expand...
C?n bán g?p di?n tho?i LG Pro lite Dual D686 còn b?o hÃnh 5 tháng thegioididong.com. D?y d? ph? ki?n, còn m?i 95%. Giá cho em nó ra di là 3tr3 fix nh? cho anh em ? xa. Liên h? : 0967220124 ho?c 0917261445. Lê van vi?t Qu?n 9, TP.HCM.
 
GodHeals said:
Hi,
Why would Adam and Eve desire & take from the tree of good & evil if they had all that was good? If they walked with God and even had preternatural gifts (which I don’t know much about)? What can be more?
Thank you,
Brian
Click to expand...
C?n bán g?p di?n tho?i LG Pro lite Dual D686 còn b?o hÃnh 5 tháng thegioididong.com. D?y d? ph? ki?n, còn m?i 95%. Giá cho em nó ra di là 3tr3 fix nh? cho anh em ? xa. Liên h? : 0967220124 ho?c 0917261445. Lê van vi?t Qu?n 9, TP.HCM.
 
GodHeals said:
Hi,
Why would Adam and Eve desire & take from the tree of good & evil if they had all that was good? If they walked with God and even had preternatural gifts (which I don’t know much about)? What can be more?
Thank you,
Brian
Click to expand...
C?n bán g?p di?n tho?i LG Pro lite Dual D686 còn b?o hÃnh 5 tháng thegioididong.com. D?y d? ph? ki?n, còn m?i 95%. Giá cho em nó ra di là 3tr3 fix nh? cho anh em ? xa. Liên h? : 0967220124 ho?c 0917261445. Lê van vi?t Qu?n 9, TP.HCM.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top