In the middle of the garden stood the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (2:9). Yahweh gave man this commandment: “You may eat indeed of all the trees in the garden. Nevertheless the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall most surely die” (2:16–17). An idea that is unknown elsewhere emerges from this prohibition: the existential value of knowledge. In other words, knowing can radically alter the structure of human existence.
