What was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil?

When dealing with this question, we first need to settle on the understanding that Scripture itself does not directly say much about this topic. In fact, the only direct mentions in the Bible are: Genesis 2:9 (Tree introduced in Eden), Genesis 2:16–17 (Command not to eat from it), Genesis 3:1–7 (the serpent temptation and eating), and Genesis 3:22–24 (expulsion from Eden afterward). No later Old Testament or New Testament passage explicitly names this tree again.

There are, however, very direct theological connections and foundations laid by New Testament writers, especially Paul. While not mentioning the tree directly, these build on the Genesis fall idea:

• Romans 5 — Sin and death enter through Adam.
• 1 Corinthians 15 — Death through Adam, life through Christ.
• James 1:15 — Sin gives birth to death (echoing Genesis pattern)

We will discuss these later. First, understand that the Bible treats Genesis 2–3 as the foundational human event, leading all the way up to our need for Christ the Redeemer. This event triggers the theology surrounding the Fall, human sin, and our need for redemption, but not the physical object of the tree itself. So while the Bible later references Adam many times, sin entering the world, death entering the world, Scripture almost never returns to the specific Eden tree imagery except for the Tree of Life (which reappears in Revelation).

What Was the Tree?

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a special tree in the Garden of Eden from which God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat. It was the only tree they were forbidden to eat from, and eating its fruit represented a choice to disobey God. When Adam and Eve ate from this tree, sin and death entered the world, and they were banished from the garden. This event marked humanity’s fall and the beginning of a sin-cursed world.

The tree itself was not evil; it was created by God and was good. Its purpose was to give humanity a real choice to love and obey God willingly or to rebel against Him. The tree symbolized the moment when humanity chose to rebel, leading to the loss of innocence and the need for redemption through God’s plan of salvation.

So at a minimum, the tree represents the time in history when Adam introduced death and corruption into a previously perfect world. This world still groans under this corruption and weight of sin today (Romans 8). The effects of sin are all around us in this fallen world, ranging from crime to animal predation. There was no animal death before the Fall, as both humans and animals were first commanded to eat only plants and the fruit of the plants, and animals being under our dominion, only turned to carnivorism after the Fall. The Bible frames the sin of this “first Adam” as what creates an eternal and un-crossable chasm between humans and God that can only be bridged through the atonement of the Christ, the “Second Adam.”

Beyond these foundational truths, the tree also represents the time in history when mankind turned from an innocent, trusting relationship with God the Father, who used to walk around in the Garden with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:8), to a time where humans reached to become their own moral judges. Rather than trusting God to determine and declare right from wrong for them, they wanted to do it themselves, striving to gain the ability to understand right vs wrong experientially themselves. They moved from a child-like dependence on God for determining right and wrong to wanting to decide for themselves—choosing to define good and evil themselves rather than trusting God.

The result of this was the loss of innocence—a transition from innocence and child-like dependence into moral independence and responsibility, thinking “I won’t let God choose for me what’s right and wrong; I will choose for myself.” Thus the first anti-god “religion” was formed. These same tendencies echo today throughout the many moral religions that strive to reach out to “god” on human terms, or invent ways to “be god” or “be like god.” Remember the lure from Satan in the garden: “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). Many religions today—especially those that focus on “enlightenment”—still focus today on this same lure, trying to gain “new awareness” or “full consciousness.”

Let’s finish by diving into the deep end of the New Testament theology about the tree and its implications. The Apostle Paul was a “Pharisee of Pharisees” who was trained under Gamaliel, a highly respected Pharisee teacher in 1st-century Judaism and member of the Sanhedrin (Jewish ruling council). Paul had a command of Old Testament theology, including our topic today—the tree and all that surrounded it. Paul called the Gospel “his” Gospel, claiming he was the tool of the time to bring it light the Gospel that was hidden for ages (Romans 2:16, Romans 16:25, 2 Timothy 2:8, Galatians 1:11–12, 1 Timothy 1:11, and Titus 1:3). So how did God use Paul to infuse the theology of the tree into his Gospel?

When he writes Romans (especially chapter 5 about sin and redemption from Adam’s actions), he is not inventing ideas from scratch—he is reframing Jewish ideas about Adam, sin, and humanity around Jesus. While most Jews in Paul’s time already believed that Adam introduced death and corruption (many Second Temple texts say that Death entered through Adam and Humans now live in a corrupted world), they also emphasized the moral responsibility of humans rather than “inherited legal guilt” from Adam’s sin. They held that repentance + covenant faithfulness was how humans could restore relationship with God.

In comes Paul’s gospel which reframes this, but not entirely. Paul builds on Adam’s original sin which brought death, but he does something new in Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 by framing Adam as a representative head of humanity:

• Romans 5:12: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” and
• 1 Corinthians 15:21–22: “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive” and “And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’ (referring to Genesis 2:7). The last Adam became a life-giving spirit” (v. 45).

Paul teaches through these passages how sin entered the world, how death spread to humanity, and that Adam as the starting point of human fallenness. Humans are even guilty upon birth under this inherited fallen nature. Paul explains in Romans 5 how death entered through Adam, while 1 Corinthians 15 explains how resurrection and life come through Christ. In this way Paul builds on Jewish Adam traditions but intensifies them by showing that Adam started human corruption (their baseline) and that Adam represents humanity as a whole, then reveals the Gospel’s core message—that Christ, the Second Adam, brings eternal redemption, saving us from the First Adam’s sin.