The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is a meaningful symbol in the Bible: When Eve ate its forbidden fruit and gave it to Adam it signaled the fall of mankind. But beyond simple disobedience, why was it so significant, and why was the outcome so drastic?
According to Swedenborg, the Tree of Knowledge represents spiritual thinking that is based on our human senses and our human intelligence – things we figure out for ourselves instead of getting them from the Lord.
That might not sound like such a bad thing, and to some extent it’s not – for us, in the modern age. But the people represented by Adam and Eve were, according to Swedenborg, not like us. They were in a state of love to the Lord and had wisdom and insight that arose from that love. From the love they felt they knew instantly what was right and true and what was wrong and false, and had little need for the logic and reasoning that we employ. But on some level they wanted it — they wanted to feel life as their own, not as something coming from the Lord, and began to get fascinated with their own minds and own intelligence as something independent. This fascination is, according to Swedenborg, symbolized by the Tree of Knowledge, and the explorations they would engage in are represented by eating from the Tree of Knowledge.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 102
- Verse 9 And Jehovah God caused to spring up out of the ground every tree desirable to the sight and good for food; and the tree of life* in the middle of the garden, and the tree of theknowledge of good and evil.
‘Tree’ means perception, ‘tree desirable to the sight’ the perception of what is true, ‘tree good for food’ the perception of what is good, ‘tree of life’ love and faith deriving from love, and ‘the tree of theknowledge of good and evil’ faith derived from sensory evidence, that is, from knowledge.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 200
- The reason the tree of knowledge is now said to be in the middle of the garden, whereas previously in 2:9 the tree of life* is said to be in the middle of the garden, and not the tree ofknowledge, is that ‘the middle of the garden’ means that which is inmost. And the inmost of the celestial man, or Most Ancient Church, was the tree of life,* which was love and faith deriving from it. But the middle of the garden, or that which was the inmost of this next generation, that is, of the man who may be called celestial-spiritual, was faith.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 126
- Verse 17 But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it, for on the day that you eat of it you will surely die. Taken with those that precede them, these words mean that it is allowable, by means of every perception obtained from the Lord, for anyone to discover what truth and good are, but it is not allowable to do so from self and the world, that is, to probe into mysteries of faith by means of sensory evidence and factual knowledge. If he does the celestial in him dies.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 202
- The Most Ancient Church, which was celestial man, was not only forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge, that is, to learn that which comprised faith from sensory evidence and from facts; it was not even allowed ‘to touch that tree’, that is, even to think from sensory evidence and from facts about anything that was a matter of faith. This was to prevent them slumping from celestial to spiritual life, and in this way going down further still. The life of celestial angels is also the same. Those of them who are more interiorly celestial do not even allow faith to be mentioned or anything whatever which has a spiritual origin. If others mention it they perceive love instead of faith, with a difference known only to themselves. Thus anything that is a matter of faith they derive from love and charity. Still less do they allow themselves to listen to anything of a rational nature concerning faith, and least of all to anything of a factual nature; for they possess from the Lord by way of love a perception of what good and truth are. From perception they know instantly whether something is so or not so. Consequently when any statement about faith is made their response is either That is so, or That is not so, for they are perceiving from the Lord. This is what the Lord’s words mean in Matthew,
Let your words be, YES, YES, NO, NO; anything beyond this is from evil.* Matt. 5:37.
The present verse in Genesis says that they were not allowed even to touch the fruit of the tree of knowledge, for if they did touch it, they would be subject to evil, that is, they would consequently die. All the same, celestial angels, like others, discuss various matters among themselves, but they do so in celestial language that is formed by, and derived from, love, a language that is more indescribable than the language of spiritual angels.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 192
- Consequently the serpent, which is the sensory part, persuaded the woman to probe into matters of faith in the Lord to see whether they were so. This is meant by eating from the tree of knowledge, and the fact that the rational of the member of the Church conceded is meant by the man (vir) eating, verses 1-6.
AE 109
[3] This then is why trees are so often mentioned in the Word, by which are signified those things which pertain to a man’s mind; and why it is, that in the first chapters of Genesis, two trees are said to have been placed in the garden of Eden, one of which was called the tree of life, and the other the tree of knowledge (scientia). By the tree of life mentioned there is signified the good of love to the Lord, and thence heavenly joy, which those possessed who at that time formed the church, and who are meant by the man and his wife; and by the tree ofknowledge is signified the delight of knowledges (cognitiones) without any other use than to be accounted learned, and to acquire renown for erudition, solely for the sake of honour or gain.