Good and Evil
The knowledge of good and evil enters human experience through a forbidden tree, and the human story is then framed as a sequence of choices between the two — at the entrance into Canaan, in the prophets, in the gospels and apostolic writing, and on through to the final conflict at the close of the Apocalypse.
The Tree and the First Choice
The serpent's argument turns on the very phrase: "for God knows that in the day you⁺ eat of it, then your⁺ eyes will be opened, and you⁺ will be as God, knowing good and evil" (Ge 3:5). The woman's perception confirms the offer's appeal: "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate" (Ge 3:6). What follows is the disclosure of nakedness, the hiding from Yahweh among the trees, the chain of curses on serpent, woman, and ground, and the first promise of enmity between the seed of the woman and the serpent — "he will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel" (Ge 3:15). The narrative closes with the divine note that drives the expulsion: "Look, the man has become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, so that he doesn't put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" (Ge 3:22). The Cherubim and the flaming sword stand at the east of the garden to keep the way of the tree of life (Ge 3:24).
The pattern is read back in the apostolic letters. The first transgression is named directly: "and Adam was not beguiled, but the woman being beguiled has fallen into transgression" (1Ti 2:14). The death-consequence is set out in Romans: "as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, for that all sinned" (Ro 5:12). The reversal is stated in parallel: "For since by man [came] death, by man [came] also the resurrection of the dead" (1Co 15:21). Israel's prophet adds the verdict on the lineage: "Your first father sinned, and your teachers have transgressed against my [Speech]" (Is 43:27). Sirach reads the chapter as the origin of mortality: "From a woman sin originated, And because of her we all must die" (Sir 25:24).
Setting Life and Death Before Man
The freedom that the tree-narrative presupposes is restated as a standing condition. Sirach puts it as the structure of creation: "It was he who from the beginning created man; And gave him into the hand of his imagination" (Sir 15:14); "Fire and water are poured out before you; In that which pleases you, put forth your hand" (Sir 15:16); "Life and death are before man; That which pleases him will be given to him" (Sir 15:17).
The Exhortation at Shechem
The framework re-emerges at Israel's settlement, when Joshua presents the choice as one of allegiance: "And if it seems evil to you⁺ to serve Yahweh, choose you⁺ this day whom you⁺ will serve; whether the gods which your⁺ fathers served who were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you⁺ dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh" (Jos 24:15).
Wise and Evil Choices
The same vocabulary shapes the rest of scripture. Solomon prays for a discerning heart: "Give your slave therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this your great people?" (1Ki 3:9). The psalmist's stance is "I have chosen the way of faithfulness: Your ordinances I have set [before me]" (Ps 119:30); "Let your hand be ready to help me; For I have chosen your precepts" (Ps 119:173). Ruth's confession to Naomi is in the same key: "where you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge; your people will be my people, and your God my God" (Ru 1:16). Micah reads communal life by the same rule: "For all the peoples walk every one in the name of his god; and we will walk in the name of Yahweh our God forever and ever" (Mi 4:5). In the gospel, "Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her" (Lu 10:42); and Moses' faith is read as a choice: "choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season" (He 11:25).
The opposite choice is described in equally direct terms. Of those who refuse Yahweh's call: "you⁺ did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I did not delight" (Is 65:12); "they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their detestable things" (Is 66:3). And of those who reject the wisdom that calls to them in the streets: "they hated knowledge, And did not choose the fear of Yahweh" (Pr 1:29).
The Inward Conflict
The choice is also fought out within the person. The Romans passage describes the divided will under sin: "I was alive apart from the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died" (Ro 7:9-10). The law itself is "holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good" (Ro 7:12), but sin has used the good commandment to bring death. The internal experience runs: "what I do not want, that I participate in; but what I hate, that I do" (Ro 7:15); "in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing: for to want is present with me, but to do that which is good [is] not" (Ro 7:18); "the good which I want, I do not: but the evil which I do not want, that I participate in" (Ro 7:19). The summary: "I find then the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present" (Ro 7:21). The passage closes in two layered moves — the lament, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?", and the rescue, "thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Ro 7:24-25).
The Final Conflict
At the close of the Apocalypse, the conflict between good and evil is staged in cosmic scope. The unclean spirits issue from the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet to gather the kings of the earth: "they are spirits of demons, working signs; which go forth to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together to the war of the great day of the God of hosts" (Re 16:14). They gather them at "Har-magedon" (Re 16:16). The seventh bowl is poured out: "there came forth a great voice out of the temple, from the throne, saying, It is done" (Re 16:17). Lightnings, voices, thunders, and an unprecedented earthquake follow; the great city is divided; "Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath" (Re 16:19). Islands flee, mountains disappear, and great hail falls on men, "and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for its plague is exceedingly great" (Re 16:21). The conflict that began at the tree closes in this judgment-scene.