Tag Archives: Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

If No One is Watching

04 Tuesday Apr 2023

Posted by in Walking in the Way

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Hello and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman!

I am running a bit late this week but I did get a post completed!  I had thought I would take a deeper look at the word “wicked” in scripture but then saw some fascinating things in the NT about faith I wanted to look at as well.  And then, there have been so many avenues of study opened up to me through my study of Isaiah 45:7, I wasn’t sure which one to pursue first.  I’ve known my next study was going to be on the full armor of God as described in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (See Ephesians 6: 10-18) and, as I started to put together notes this this week’s post, I realized everything I was looking at would be explored as I looked at the various pieces of armor.  Perhaps I should just wait to post until deeper into my Armor of God study…but then, I read something interesting in Ephesians Chapter 6.  The word as found in The New King James Version of the Bible is “eyeservice” found in verse 6. 

“Eyeservice” caught my attention because of my study of the word “evil”.  I had looked at the Hebrew and Greek words for “evil” during my study of Isaiah 45:7 and the Hebrew word translated “evil” is ra.  Ra is spelled Resh (ר) Ayin (ע).  Resh is a picture of a bent head or one bent under a heavy burden and the Ayin is the picture of the eyes.  So, those who do evil are those who allow their actions to be guided by what they have determined is right in their own eyes.

The Greek word translated as “eyeservice” is ophthalmodouleia (G3787)and is a bit of a tongue twister.  It’s a combination word of opthalmos meaning “the eye” and douleia meaning “slavery” or “bondage”.  This Greek word appears twice in scripture: here in Ephesians 6:6 and then again in Colossians 3:22 where Paul writes, “Servants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not only when their eyes are on you, as pleasers of men, but in simplicity of purpose (with all your heart) because of your reverence for the Lord and as a sincere expression of your devotion to Him” (Amplified). 

At first glance, the word ophthalmodouleia doesn’t have any relation to “evil”.  The two passages where this word appears does seem to be speaking about a bondage to another’s opinion rather than doing what is right on one’s own eyes.  Since the two passages are similar, I am focusing on Ephesians 6:6 and  Jonathan Mitchell’s New Testament renders the passage as, “not in accord with eye-service (or; in line with slavery to the eyes [of folks watching]; or = doing it only when being watched) as folks desiring to please men, but rather as slaves of Christ, constantly doing (performing; producing) the will and intent of God-from out of [the] soul (=with the whole inner being; mind, will, emotion, life-force; or: = spontaneously)”. 

The Amplified is a smoother read: “Not in the way of eyeservice-as if they were watching you-and only to please men; but as servants (slaves) of Christ, doing the will of God heartily and with your whole soul.”  Paul’s admonition is to not behave one way when another person is watching you and another when they are not.  In other words, Paul is telling us not to be hypocrites.  And yet, I do see a deeper meaning in this passage.

In June of 2020, I was in prayer asking not only that the eyes of my understanding be enlightened but that I would see the Holy Spirit guiding me into all truth.  The answer I received was “the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”.  I did a word study on Genesis 2:9 but, once I’d completed it, I wasn’t sure where to go next.  I didn’t need to worry: the Holy Spirit was about to guide me.  I began hearing my Bible Teacher’s mention the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and then they weren’t just mentioning it but teaching on it.  I also would just happen to come across books and other writings teaching on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil as well as the Tree of Life.  Since June of 2020, I have come to see that there are two ways to live.  We can live our lives out from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which means we have ourselves at the center of our lives and determine for ourselves what is good and evil.  We can live our lives out from the Tree of Life which is the very life of the risen and ascended Jesus Christ made real to us through the Indwelling Spirit. 

I do not see Ephesians 6:6 (or the passage in Colossians) as Paul only telling his listeners not to be hypocrites.  I see this passage as Paul urging his listeners, and us today, to live our lives out from the very life of Jesus Christ no matter what position we find ourselves in and no matter what work might be placed in our hands to do.

I hear the word “secular” a great deal.  I get what people are saying but may I suggest there is no such thing as “secular” where a Believer is concerned?  Our very bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  We are One Body with Jesus Christ, partakers of His divine nature and co-creators with Him (2 Peter 1:4, 1 Corinthians 3:9).  This is our very identity.  This is not something we pick up and adorn ourselves with on a Sunday morning but then lay aside when we go to work or to school or whatever occupies our time on a day to day basis.  Everything we do we do unto the Lord and with Him because He is in us. 

That is what I saw in Ephesians 6:6.  I suppose “eyeservice” does have some relation to “evil” because a person who is living for the approval of others and is acting accordingly has determined it is good to do so.  In that sense, that person is doing what is right in his or her own eyes.  Let us not live that way.  Let us live-and live spontaneously-with our whole inner being: mind, will, emotion, out of the Christ.  Let us each one live joyfully knowing that it is no longer we who live, it is Christ who lives in us. 

Hallelujah!  Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

The Comprehensive Study Bible, The Zondervan Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984

Mitchell, Jonathan Paul, MA, The New Testament, Harper Brown Publishing, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2019

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

Walker, G. Allen, Koine Greek Textbook, Volume IV-V, 2014-2017

No Longer Wretched

14 Monday Nov 2022

Posted by in Isaiah 45:7, Studies

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Image by Daniel Reche from Pixabay

Hello and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I continue my study of Isaiah 45:7 by looking at “evil”.

There is no denying that usage ends up defining a word.  There are words that mean the opposite today of what they meant decades ago.  One example is “let”.  Let was once used to mean lacking or obstruction or hindrance.  Nowadays it is used to mean to allow, to give an opportunity, to free from confinement.  Understanding literature from bygone eras can be difficult unless the reader understands the words used to carry much different connotations than they do today.

If I go to the world for a definition of evil, which is something quite easy to do in this day and age thanks to social media, I find two definitions.  “Evil” is used to describe acts that most would consider are obviously evil-war crimes, humanitarian atrocities, etc.  The second way the word is used is extremely superficial.  Person A is labeled “evil” by Person B because Person A disagrees with Person B.  Or Person A is labeled “evil” because Person A looks and/or sounds different from Person B.  This is not anything new, though it may seem to be more pervasive due to the immediacy of social media, but I have found this to be so in the histories of every era I have read.  This labelling another “evil” because he or she disagrees with what another says is good goes back to our first parents in the Garden of Eden. 

It is important to remember that the tree Adam and Eve ate from was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  I have come across several arguments that speak of it as the “Tree of Knowledge” full stop.  The argument is then made FOR the Serpent because God didn’t want us to use our intellects and the good serpent brought us knowledge.  This argument has no legs to stand on because the Tree was not the Tree of Knowledge (full stop) but the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

I am going to take a small foray into the Book of Genesis and consider Adam.  The argument that God is a selfish God who wanted to keep us stupid does-in my opinion-utterly collapse when I consider Adam as described in the second chapter of Genesis.  God plants the garden and then puts Adam in it to tend and keep it.  The Hebrew word translated “tend” in the NKJV is one that means “take hold of, bear up, sustain”1 and the word translated “keep” is one that means “to guard, protect, take heed, preserve.”2 Then, God brings every beast of the field and bird of the air to Adam to see what he would call them.  In this single chapter, I see Agriculture, Government, The Art of Defense, Biology, and Zoology.  I can see nothing that would lead me to believe God had no expectation of Adam using his intellect.

 I am also not one who subscribes to the belief that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a magic tree with the power to bestow said knowledge.  I have read many studies which refer to the story of the Garden of Eden as an allegory and these studies have made solid and valid points.  And then, I read in one of my science books that: “In 2016…scientists identified a mutation in a stretch of snake DNA called ZRS.  This one small change was enough to rid the animals of their limbs and confine them to a future of slithering on their bellies” (Pilcher, 117).  Whether you are one who believes Moses wrote Genesis or one who believes the Old Testament was finally written down during the Babylonian Captivity, I think it interesting that the one who wrote “On your belly you shall go” knew something thousands of years ago scientists only recently proved in DNA.  So, perhaps Genesis is a bit more than allegorical…

Allegory or fact, I find something interesting and worthwhile in both points of view and neither agree nor disagree with either.  The point of view I do agree with is that all the Trees in the garden are best looked at as sacraments.  God places decrees on the Trees thus bestowing upon them a sacred character and significance.  He has caused all manner of them to grow and be both pleasant to look at and good for food.  Of these, the Man and (later) Woman can freely eat.  It appears both could have freely eaten of the Tree of Life as well.  It is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil alone which God decrees “you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17).  I have a two volume Exposition of Genesis where I read:

“As in the sacraments by virtue of the divine Word the visible means become vehicles of divine grace, so here by virtue of the divine word, which designates the one tree as “the tree of life,” “life” can in reality be imparted by its use when and under whatever circumstances God decrees.  In like manner, the second tree, as its name implies, becomes an agency through which under certain circumstances, divinely appointed, man may come to an experimental knowledge of good and evil.  He may through the presence of the tree be confronted with a choice, he may exercise his freedom to do God’s will in the choice, or he may refuse to make use of his freedom. Had man persisted in his freedom, the experience as such would have wrought in him a knowledge of good and evil analogous to that of God, in this sense that, without having consented to evil, an awareness of its existence and its implications would have been aroused in him.  The tree of the knowledge of good and evil would have effectively done its work…So the trees are rightly regarded as sacramental in a sense” (Leupold, 121)

What could have been?  What would our world look like now if a different choice had been made then?  I can’t help asking the question but it is a waste of time to dwell on it.  A different choice was not made and the entire human race now has a day to day experience of good and evil.  What is good and what is evil really doesn’t have a clear definition because something is described as good or evil depending on how it is perceived by the five senses.  What is determined good by one person is evil to another and so it goes moment by moment, day by day, as the world turns round and round.

What can we do?  Even we believers have a problem because we intend to do good and by good we mean do what God declares good but our good is either called evil by someone else or we find we don’t have the wherewithal to do good.  Like the Apostle Paul, we “find then a law, that evil is present with me the one who wills to do good.  For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  O wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from the body of death?” (Romans 7:21-24)

This is not a question without an answer.  Paul goes on to say “I thank God–through Jesus Christ our Lord!” We can all give thanks for the day that we live in because Jesus Christ came to earth, lived as one of us, died our death, rose from the dead, ascended to the Father, and carried us with Him!  We are raised up with Him and, because we are in Him, we are seated in heavenly places! (Ephesians 2:5-6).  We who know who we are in Jesus Christ are no longer trapped in the cycle of misery, deciding for ourselves what is good or evil, and seeing our intended good fail.  The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil no longer has any power over us for we are the Bride of Christ.  We have come to that Holy City, the New Jerusalem and there we find once more the Tree of Life (Revelation 21 & 22). 

In Jesus Christ, we are restored to what human beings were always meant to be.  This truth is being formed in us bit by bit, day by day, but the fact that we are still in process doesn’t change what IS.  We have the down payment of our inheritance in the Holy Spirit living within us.  Because His Spirit lives in us, we have the very mind of Jesus Christ.  It is this mind within us that renews and thus transforms our minds. (See Ephesians 1:14-16, 1 Corinthians 2:16, Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 3:18). We no longer live deciding what is good and evil but we live by His LIFE.

His promise is certain.  The day will come when all things are restored and our very bodies will be made like His.  We do not know exactly what we will be but we know we will be like Him!  How I pray for the hastening of that day!

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

  1. Strong’s, H5564
  2. Strong’s, H8104

Think it’s impossible for Moses to have written the Pentateuch? Check out this DVD:

The Moses Controversy

References

Let Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster

Sacrament Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com

Leupold, H.C., D.D., Exposition of Genesis, Volume I, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1942

Pilcher, Dr. Helen, Mind Maps: Biology How to Navigate the Living World, Unipress, Ltd, 2020

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990

De Novo

26 Monday Sep 2022

Posted by in Isaiah 45:7, Studies

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I am fascinated by energy.  The studies on energy being conducted within the science discipline of Physics, and especially Quantum Physics, are riveting.  I read different articles and, as I’ve come expect in the science world, for every postulation there is an equal and opposite refutation.  I don’t mind as I find there’s something to learn from both sides of the argument.  I take what I read and go to the scriptures, wondering what they might say on the subject.

As I said last week, I do not completely agree with the belief that all things that exist were created out of nothing.  I don’t completely disagree either: I do believe that there was a time when nothing we know existed and there was only God.  Hebrews 11:3 says, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”  I think this passage clearly states God did not create from matter already existing but the idea that he created from nothing is not an accurate portrayal of His creating.  In the beginning, there was the Intention of the Father, described in Ephesians 1 and also peppered and salted throughout both the Old and New Testaments.  This Intention was expressed by The Word and everything spoken by The Word was energized by the Spirit thus forming the heavens and the earth and then filling them both. There is a beautiful passage in Proverbs: “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; By understanding He established the heavens; By His knowledge the depths were broken up, And clouds drop down the dew” (Verses 19-20). 

Isaiah 11:2 gives this description of the Holy Spirit: “…the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”  This description of the Spirit paralleled as it is in the verses of Proverbs is so very exciting.  Psalm 104:3, in speaking of the things God has made says; “You send forth Your Spirit and they are created; and You renew the face of the earth.”  The Holy Spirit is an integral part of creation and I haven’t heard many teachings on this subject.  It’s something I want to spend more time on but, for now, I want to keep my focus on the meaning of the word “create”.  Whatever its intended meaning in Genesis 1:1, the word is used again in Genesis 1:27 and 5:2 where the scriptures speak of God creating man.  It is clear man was formed from the dust of the ground so man did not come from nothing. 

And so, this week, I continue my search for a satisfactory definition for create.  “Create” is bara in the Hebrew and I shared the confusing entry from Strong’s concordance in last week’s post.  Many other scholars have said-and I agree-that the meaning of a word does not drastically change no matter its context.  I don’t see why bara should be any different: there ought to be a consistent meaning that fits with every instance of its usage.  One Hebrew teacher I listen to likes the “make fat” or “fattening” meaning found in the 1 Samuel 2:29 passage.  He plugs that meaning into Genesis 1 and says that the creation story doesn’t suggest at all that God created from nothing but rather he “fattened” or filled the heavens and the earth.  I can see his point but there are many passages where that meaning doesn’t exactly fit.  Case in point is Joshua 17: 15 & 18 where my NKJV translates bara as “clear a place” in verse 15 and “cut it down” in verse 18.  I have to stretch the idea of “make fat” almost to the breaking point while trying to make it make sense here.  Clearing a place or cutting down doesn’t work in other scriptures: I don’t think anyone would accept God cutting down the heavens and the earth as an appropriate translation of Genesis 1.

I did amuse myself by plugging the different definitions found in the Strong’s into different scriptures.  I liked the idea of God “dispatching” the heavens and the earth as that gave me the strong sense of creation having a purpose. I was reminded of Isaiah 45:18: “For thus says the Lord, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord and there is no other.”  The forest Joshua commanded be “cut down” in the afore mentioned passages could also have been dispatched but, ultimately, I didn’t find this definition to be satisfactory so kept looking.

The Davis Dictionary of the Bible defines creation as, “The act or operation of God whereby he calls into existence what did not before exist.  The verb always has God for its subject and the result is an entirely new thing.” I found a similar idea in the New World Dictionary where “create” is defined as: “to grow, to cause to come into existence, bring into being; make; originate…to bring about, give rise…”  The definition “to bring about a new thing” isn’t expressly used but I do think it can be applied.  Wilson’s Old Testament Word Studies gave me the most thorough definition of create: “to bring into being; to produce, put in form, or renew; to put in a new or happier condition.  It is a word having a special reference to God and his operations by an infinite power.  The leading import of bara is two-fold: (1) The production or effectuation of something new, rare, and wonderful; the bringing something to pass in a striking and marvelous manner. (2) The act of renovating, remodeling, or reconstituting, something already in existence.”

As I look at this definition, I do see Isaiah 45:7 could be translated “I create evil/calamity” and it could mean God brings evil into being.  I think a careful read of the first few chapters of Genesis shows this isn’t true: evil is not a part of the creation God calls “good”.  However, He did cause every tree to grow in the garden and, in the midst of the garden were both the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  All fairness to our God, He did warn our ancestors not to eat of that tree.  I do think there’s enough to consider Isaiah 45:7 is not saying God brought evil into existence but rather He will reconstitute evil and calamity: He will put in a new and happier condition.  He sends His spirit forth and renews the face of the earth.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

De Novo = From the beginning, anew

 Some Interesting Reading:

 Collapse: Has quantum theory’s greatest mystery been solved? | New Scientist

Fragments of Energy – Not Waves or Particles – May Be the Fundamental Building Blocks of the Universe (scitechdaily.com)

References

Davis, John D., Illustrated Davis Dictionary of the Bible, Revised Edition, Royal Publishers, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee, 1973, Page 157

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990

Wilson, William, Wilson’s Old Testament Word Studies, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, Page 101