Cheryl Schatz

Gaza,

How can God refer to an intimate knowledge of sin (experience) in the name of the tree in chapter 2, then in chapter 3 when considering Adam after eating that same fruit say Adam has “become like us knowing good from evil” (knowledge about sin) ? Though the phrases don’t use exactly the same word they refer to the effect of the same tree.

The language that God uses is the perfect tense when He says that Adam had become like God. This is what Adam was and still is as he is in the image of God. This is not what Adam just became. It is a little easier to see from the Andersen-Forbes Phrase Marker Analysis if I can get it to fit here. I don’t want to make it too small or you can’t read it. Let’s see how it comes out: