Don't Eat from the Tree of Sorting! (Gen 2:17)

Into and Out of the Garden

¹⁷ except from the Tree of Sorting, from which you must not eat.

 וּמֵעֵ֗ץ הַדַּ֙עַת֙ ט֣וֹב וָרָ֔ע לֹ֥א תֹאכַ֖ל מִמֶּ֑נּוּ

We learned last time that the earthling was totally permitted to eat from any of the trees in the garden. Now we learn that that verse, which sounded like a complete sentence, was not complete. There is one exception to the permission: the Tree of Sorting.

Interesting, no? And it makes me stop — which has always been the purpose of this column — to wonder about many other things in this story.

Let’s start with the other special tree in the garden, the Tree of Life. Is the earthling allowed to eat from it? He has not, and will not ever be, told that he is not permitted to eat from that tree.

Why isn’t the earthling allowed to eat from the Tree of Sorting? I should add here that not eating from it is more than just a serving suggestion. As I pointed out last time, an imperfect verb like תֹאכַ֖ל tokhal might mean “you may eat” or “you should eat” or any other possible meaning that can be associated with an action that has not yet been completed. (That’s why this form is called the “imperfect.”) לֹ֥א lo is simply the “no” or “not” particle.

Readers who have some familiarity with the Bible in Hebrew, however, will immediately recognize that these two words together have precisely the same grammatical form as the “thou shalt nots” of the Ten Commandments. The King James Version translates our verse exactly that way: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it.” This may not be a commandment, but it is certainly a command.

Porphyry, the 3^rd-c. CE philosopher, writes in Against the Christians, “Why did God forbid the knowledge of good and evil? He forbade the evil, rightly so, but why also the good?” Taking the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil” to really be a Tree of Sorting, as we have, eliminates this question. Nonetheless, certain other questions obviously arise:

• What is the purpose of this tree?

• Why was it planted in the garden?

• Why can’t the earthling eat from it?