The Literal Meaning of Genesis
against the prohibition. It was not because they subsequently went against the commandment and ate the fruit that the tree became the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; but even if they had remained obedient and had taken nothing against that commandment, it would be correctly called by what would happen to them there if they had taken the fruit. Thus, a tree might be called the "tree of satiety" because from its fruit men could have their fill. Now, if no one approached this tree, the name would not thereby be incongruous. For when men would approach it and be filled, then they would prove that the tree was appropriately named.
CHAPTER 16
How man could have understood the meaning of evil before be experienced 1t.
34. How could man, they ask, understand what was said to him about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil when he was completely ignorant of the meaning of evil?
Those who think this way do not notice how most unknown things are understood from their contraries which are known, so that even the names of nonexistent things can be used in conversation without puzzling the hearer. For instance, what is entirely nonexistent we call nihil (nothing); and anyone who understands and speaks Latin comprehends these two syllables. How does this happen except that when the mind sees what is, it recognizes by its privation what is not? The same thing can be said of the word "void." In gazing at the fullness of bodily substance, we understand by the privation of it the meaning of void as its contrary. As for the sense of hearing, we make judgments not only about words but also about silence. So, in perceiving the life within him, a man might take precautions against its opposite, that is, the privation of life (which we call death) and against anything that would cause him to lose what was so dear to him; I mean any deed of his own which might