In Genesis 3.6 we see Eve’s response to the serpent’s temptation, “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for wisdom, she took some and she ate it.” Hebrew (tov). Up until this point, only God had made judgments about whether something was good or not good. God say that creation was good or very good. In 2:18, it was God who said that it was not good for man to be alone. And in Gen 2:16,17, when giving the command about the tree, God calls it the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Again, the word used here is the simple word for good and the simple word for evil. The same word tov/good that has been used throughout the story, is used here.  Can this not be a clue as to what the danger of this tree is. Up until this point, God made the assessment of what was good and what was not good. Mankind did not have any need to know good and evil, because this sort of judgment is not his place. Indeed, sometimes I’ve struggled with trying to understand what is so bad about knowing the difference between good and evil. How can we avoid evil if we don’t know what it is? How can we do good if we don’t know what it is? Surely, it is not that God wants us to be ignorant. But what this tree did, was cause mankind to forget God’s assessment of what is good and what is evil, and try to make his own assessment. It takes mankind from hearing the voice of God and obeying it, to looking around and making a determination for himself.