I understand your point Glory days... but Romans 7 suggests other wise. More specifically... if the "knowledge of good and evil" is "sin"... then this would be suggesting that God beholds (Sin)... (Gen. 3:22)..
I will add Romans 7 and try to explain my counter perspective to this idea.
First ... The key to this idea...
1 Cor. 15:55f... and Heb. 2:14
“O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is obvious that the serpent is being addressed here, per Heb. 2:14 ... Note the order of damage...
The serpent bite of "Death" is SIN (Transgression of the Law ... or on Adams account... Unbelief in God's Provision and Truth) ... The next point is that the Power of Sin is The Law. We know that the Law is good... and we further know that God is Good by the Law. It represents His perfection that we can never obtain, because within it are matters that come directly from being God. The Kingship of Israel for instance.
In other words... the serpent imputed the Law (perfection of God) upon mankind ... through spreading his unbelief and desire to be like God (Is. 14:14 and Gen. 3:5) ...
This afforded the serpent to condemn us by God's Self standards of "Perfection" and resultingly empowered the serpent with the office of false and self appointed judge, accuser and Death. We all fall short of the Flesh/Glory of God... Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:3)
Now... going into Romans 7 ... we can now see the following...
Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law.
Here we see that the Law... or fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is not Evil. We see that it is good in that it shows us our "Missing the Mark of God"... (Sin/Imperfection when compared to God) ... think of this statement... (Mk. 10:18 and this 2 Cor. 5:21)
So.. now we need to see if there is DNA of scripture to link this to the tree.
For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
He we see the connection to "Coveting". This binds to (Gen. 3:5 and Is. 14:14) ... we coveted the authority and wisdom of God by the inception of temptation by a malevolent force.
8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.
Now... we see that Sin... which is the sting of the Serpent... afforded by imputing the carnal pursuit of trying to "Be Like God" upon us through deceit... is the very knowledge of our NEED for God... though the serpent is using it to attempt to separate us from "belief" in our all Loving Provider, through SHAME... Note God's immediate response to our choice and resulting shame... (Gen. 3:21 ... this is symbolic of Gal. 3:7 and imputed righteousness of God... as you well know)
9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
Here we see a duel reference to individual human birth and the Eden account. We see that the knowledge of (Perfection of God and Wisdom of Good and Evil) God... slays us Spiritually and renders us carnally focused on our inability to measure up to God. This divides us from God and gives us two possible responses...
1) We try to (Is. 14:14)
2) We claim Eph. 2:8f and John 5:39f
10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.
Here we see how the serpent used the very perfection of God against God and deceived us to question God's goodness and utter, Loving Provision. The Spirit's perfection that brings Life by the will of the Spirit (God TriUne), became a tool that the "adversary" utilized to separate us from our Creator. In this... knowledge of God's Perfection (Law) brought about death in our very members on many levels.
11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.
Commandment... Law... God's Perfection (Mk. 10:18) ... Here we see that key tie in that I addressed with Corinthians and Hebrews. The Serpent used God's Perfection (Law) to deceive us into Sin.... And the wages of unbelief in God's utter provision and our focus on how we "should be like God"... which is the first lie... (Gen. 3:5; Is. 14:14) in conjunction with "you shall not surely die"... was utilized to bring about our disconnection from our Life Giving Spirit! (John 14:6) ... IOW ... we took our eyes off of God and put them on ourselves... (Gen. 3:7)
12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
This is why I say the Tree is good and it's fruit is good... but only to God... (Mk. 10:18)
wphewwww....
done... [MENTION=10]Jerry Shugart[/MENTION] ... [MENTION=13955]glorydaz[/MENTION] ... [MENTION=6141]Nick M[/MENTION] ... [MENTION=3698]Tambora[/MENTION] ... you don't have to... but please give this a read and tell me what you think... [MENTION=17501]ok doser[/MENTION] ... feel free to provide some of that J.H. feedback. :thumb: