The creation story culminates in the interaction between the Creator and the pinnacle of God’s creation, humankind. This is represented in the story by Adam, and by extension, Eve. (I use Their to describe the Creator, because the text in Genesis states that the Creator proclaimed, “Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness….” Genesis 1:26)
The Pinnacle has a need from the start – man is incomplete himself, so the glaring question that must be addressed about Adam is, how should that which is not good (that man is alone) in an otherwise good creation be satisfied?
The Genesis narrative describes attempts made to address man’s problem of alone-ness. A search was conducted for a help-mate to satisfy that need for companionship, and it was quickly determined that anything created up until that point, including animals was insufficient to meet that primordial need for companionship. If One by himself was a problem, perhaps Two would be sufficient to ameliorate aloneness…?
The Creator fashions an “other” from the man: perhaps it takes another of the same kind to satisfy alone-ness? A clone identical to the first man apparently would not suffice (a man plus a man), so a counterpart was created – of the same kind, but intrinsically different, yet dependent upon each other for continued propagation. Would two pieces from the same puzzle be enough to satiate the need? (A man plus a woman?)
It takes a garden and some trees to find out the answer to that question.
Much has been written about the events that transpired in the Garden of Eden. Many would say that at this point, before any fruit in the garden were harmed, perfection prevailed. It was the theft and ingestion of some forbidden fruit that led to the the shattering of the ultimate ideal, they would say. Taken to its logical conclusion, such a viewpoint would espouse that mankind should seek to return to that perfect state in Eden – man and woman, happily ever after in the garden, content to abstain from the forbidden fruit. Perfection would be defined by the absence of disobedience (the absence of “sin”, in some circles). If this were true, mankind’s potential would be fulfilled by somehow attaining perfection, whether by self effort, or by transference from another source. Indeed, there are some who believe that the goal of “salvation” is to reach perfection – and that if one can’t reach perfection (the absence of infractions against a cosmic law) by one’s own effort, then one must depend on another, even Jesus, to provide that perfection. But this line of thinking fixes the goal of humanity’s existence to be attaining “perfection”, the absence of “sin”.
Did the Creator expect Adam and Eve to forever obey the prohibition and avoid the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Was the Creator surprised that the prohibition was ignored and that God’s perfect plan was forever ruined by the theft and eating of some fruit? Was God’s plan A interrupted by an unforeseen circumstance (theft of fruit), and that God had to resort to a plan B to carry out his intentions? Did the Creator intend for Adam and Eve to never taste the knowledge of good and evil in the first place?
If so, why did the Creator invent that particular tree? Couldn’t the garden of Eden have been created without a Tree of the knowledge of good and evil to begin with? That would have guaranteed that Adam and Eve could have remained “perfect” and unblemished by disobedience. They could have lived through eternity oblivious to evil (and also to good) – but would have been safely tucked away in their cocoon of Eden. If it was God’s intention for them to be perfect, it would have been trivial to ensure that by not even creating a forbidden fruit.
The fact that God would go to the trouble to create a tree, even a forbidden one, indicates that there is more to the tree’s purpose than being a target of abstinence.