The article highlights knowledge because it connects to how humans can utilize that knowledge to understand the world that God created around them. Human knowledge in this case directly relates to the fact that humans are stewards of God’s Creation and have the responsibility to carry on this work. When Adam and Eve did eat from the tree, it highlights their heightened knowledge now being more “God-like” since they have the knowledge of good and evil.
The sort of knowledge communicated by the eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and bad is “ruling knowledge” or knowledge in the context of responsibility. This prohibition of knowledge relates directly back to how humans would exercise their stewardship over God’s Creation.
Mankind draws nourishment from the fruits and vegetables of the earth. Humans provide the earth with the care necessary, while the Earth, in turn, provides food and water and nourishment to humans. The fruit on the tree of knowledge symbolize God withholding a particular “gift” or “item” to mankind. Yet, when the fruit is taken from the tree it represents a seizing of a gift that was not giving to Adam and Eve, but rather taken. Specifically eating the fruit represents humans decision to intentionally go against God’s will and act against Him.
The knowledge of good and evil (after Adam and Eve ate from the tree) can be associated with them becoming more “God-like”. This is because prior to this event in Genesis, God was able to determine what was good. For example, God looked upon His Creation and saw that it was good. Also, God said that it was “not good” for man to be alone. Though man and woman acquire new forms of judgments about the world around them, they are not completely elevated to God-like status. Humans are able to assign value and “judge” in a sense without knowing the larger context of things. At the end of Genesis 3, man and woman are banished from the Garden and subjected to live mortal lives while working the soil, earth, and multiplying creation. The tree of life stands in opposition to the death that entered the world and represents a way for humans to manage their new situation with the prospect of wisdom. God takes it upon Himself to never abandon us. God sends them out in order to redeem their relationship. In this, God is gracious because he banishes mankind from the Garden in order for them to not eat from the tree of life.
Foundations of Theology 