The Literal Meaning of Genesis (continued)
BOOK EIGHT 55 ciled us to God. He is the Man who is Mediator between man and God,'§ the Word with God and flesh with us,'? the Word made flesh between God and us.8° Concerning Him the prophet said, Before the Child knows good or evil, He will reject evil-doing in order to choose the good.8! How does He reject or choose what He does not know except that these two are known in one way by the knowledge of good and in another way by the experience of evil? Through the knowledge of good, evil is known, although it is not felt. Good is held on to lest by loss8? of it evil be experienced. Furthermore, by the experience of evil, good is known, since a person feels what he lost when he finds it is evil to have lost the good.
Hence, before the Child knew by experience a good which He would lack or an evil which He would feel in the loss of a good, He rejected evil to do good, that is, He was unwilling to lose what He had lest He feel the loss of what He ought not to lose. He gave a unique example of obedience, because He did not come to do His own will but the will of Him by whom He was sent.®3 In this He differed from him who chose to do his own will, not the will of his Creator. Hence, it is rightly said, As by one man's disobedience many have been made sinners, so by one Man's obedience many are made just,®* because as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.®°
CHAPTER 15
How the tree of the knowledge of good and evil got its name.
33. Without good reason certain writers®® are deeply puzzled when they seek to discover how the tree of the knowledge of good and evil could have been so called before man broke God's commandment by touching it and from experience discerned the difference between the good that he lost and the evil that he committed. Now, this tree was given such a name so that our first parents might observe the prohibition and not touch it, taking care to avoid suffering the consequences of touching it