Prior to their disobedience, Adam and Eve did not have Eternal life, nor were they evil or good. One cannot be good or evil, if they don't have the "knowledge of good and evil".
IOWs, they were created innocent, and without Eternal life.[/QUOTE\]
Is the “knowledge of good and evil” mentioned at
Genesis 2:17, is it the same as that referred to at
Genesis 3:5 and Ge 3:22?
The good and evil” in the three texts seems to refer to the one thing. Adam and Eve knew something about evil before eating the fruit from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. (
Gen. 2:17) They knew it would be wrong for them to eat that fruit, and they knew that death was an evil to be shunned. To “be as gods, knowing good and evil” seems to mean more than just helpful knowledge of what is right and what is wrong. (
Gen. 3:5) The word
gods could mean just Jehovah God, or since the Hebrew word here is
Elohim it can mean either God (Jehovah) or gods. If it means gods, then it could refer to Jehovah God and his master worker and only-begotten Son, the Word. It was to that one that Jehovah said, at
Genesis 3:22: “Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.”
To know “good and evil” as Jehovah and his only-begotten Son know it would seem to mean to know good and evil for yourself, that is, you make the decision of what is good and what is evil, you judge what is right and what is wrong. Adam and Eve were no longer theocratic, no longer looked to God as the Universal Sovereign over all creatures, no longer accepted him as the one to determine right and wrong. They were going to determine for themselves what they were going to do on the earth, and not let God be the Supreme Arbiter.
Hence to the more responsible man, the woman’s head, Jehovah said in substance: ‘All right, Adam, if you want to be non-theocratic you go your own way. Decide for yourself what is good and evil from your viewpoint. You have no place in the garden of Eden. This garden is for theocratic people who are subject to me. Now get out.’ This view of the matter harmonizes with the fact that God does not assign the committing of sin as the reason for ousting Adam from Eden, but says it was because “the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil” and therefore should have no opportunity to eat of the tree of life.