The Literal Meaning of Genesis
This is what man has experienced in his contempt of God's command, and by this experience he has learned the difference between good and evil, that is, the good of obedience and the evil of disobedience, namely, of pride and contumacy, of the perverse imitation of God,'4 and of pernicious liberty. The tree which was the occasion of this experience for man received its name from what happened there, as I explained above.'° For we would not feel evil except by experience, since there would be no evil unless we had committed it.
Evil is not a substance: the loss of the good is what we call evil. God is the unchangeable Good; man, in what belongs to the nature in which God created him, is indeed a good, but not unchangeable Good as God is. A changeable good, which is inferior to the unchangeable Good, becomes a greater good when it adheres to the unchangeable Good, loving and serving Him with a rational and free response of the will.
Hence, this nature so endowed is indeed a great good, because it has received the ability to cling to the highest Good. But if man is unwilling to do so, he deprives himself of the good, and in this he experiences evil, whence also by God's justice even torment follows. For what could be more contrary to justice than the well-being of him who deserts the Good? Such a thing cannot possibly be, but sometimes the evil condition resulting from the loss of the higher good is not perceived by a man who possesses an inferior good which he loves. It is according to divine justice, however, that one who has voluntarily lost what he ought to have loved should suffer the pain of losing the object that he did love. Thus the Creator is praised in all things. It is also a good that a man grieves over the good he has lost; for unless some good had remained in his being, he would not feel the punishment he has in his suffering over the loss of the good.
32. A person who loves the good without having any experience of evil, namely, one who before feeling the loss of the good chooses to hold on to it so as not to lose it, is of all mankind most worthy of praise."° But if this were not a matter of singular merit, it would not be attributed to the Child of the race of Israel who receiving the name Emmanuel, "God is with us,"?7 recon-