Cheryl Schatz

bgk #38
You said:

That the Tree of knowledge did not have seeds is an assumption.  You are assuming that God is not allowed to make exceptions to His instruction on what was edible.

It isn’t an assumption at all.  God already gave Adam and Eve complete freedom to eat from every single tree that had seed bearing fruit without exception.  He forbid them from eating only the fruit from one tree.  If God withheld from them what he had already given them permission to eat from, then God can not be trusted.  There is not one iota of evidence in the text that God made an exception regarding trees that have seed bearing fruit.  Otherwise God would have had to say that they were allowed to eat from every seed bearing fruit tree except for one.  Without giving them an exception and with nothing in scripture that even hints at an exception, then logically the tree of the knowledge of good and evil did not have seeds.  Since you have made the claim that this that God can make an exception to a permission without mentioning the exception, then I would like to ask that you prove your point from scripture.  Give one example where such a thing happened.

There is no reason to say that they could not eat of the tree of knowledge because it had no seeds.

God had already given them complete freedom to eat from every tree with seed bearing fruit.  Therefore this particular tree could have not have seed bearing fruit.  You have also missed the fact that God stated further details in chapter one that were not given in chapter two.  When the permission and the prohibition was given to Adam in chapter two there was more information added to what Adam and Eve could eat and could not eat, given in detail in chapter one.  Each chapter is very important.  Although chapter 1 of Genesis is the big picture, there are also details regarding Adam and Eve that are not given in chapter two so we are not free to disregard these details but must pay close attention so that we do not miss anything that God says.

but it is not an “indisputable fact” that he was with the woman when the serpent talked with her.

Scripture says that Adam was “with her”.  It doesn’t say that she gave the fruit to her husband “when with her” as the Jehovah’s Witness bible renders the passage in order to try to prove that Adam was not with Eve when she was being tempted.  It clearly says only that Adam was with Eve and God judges Adam for listening to the voice of his wife.  The only time that Eve is recorded speaking is when she was talking with the serpent.  This is why even complementarians such as John Piper have come out very strongly preaching that Adam was with Eve and he said nothing while she was being deceived.  He listened to the voice of his wife as she talked with serpent but he did nothing.  This is called the silence of Adam.

If Adam was not with Eve during the temptation, then what proof is there of his absence?  The serpent uses the plural form of “you” and the woman also uses the plural.