According to Divine Principle, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil symbolizes Eve and her mission. Her mission is love; the fruit of the tree is her love, and the Bible connects the word “knowledge” to woman’s love. To “know” a woman is to have a sexual relationship with her. Love is the paramount knowledge that God wants all human beings to gain in maturity. Eve, which means every woman, is the ultimate expression of God’s love, so Adam’s greatest knowledge, which means every man’s, is a woman’s love.
The Bible connects the word “knowledge” to woman’s love.
The tree’s name tells us that this knowledge can go in directions both good and evil.
The knowledge of selfless love is called wisdom, which the Bible personifies as a woman. Jesus said that the Spirit will lead us into all truth. Proverbs says that wisdom “raises her voice in the public square” and that “she is a tree of life to those who take hold of her.” A true father, a tree of life, and true mother work together, as wisdom guides sons to listen to their father: “Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction,” and the father tells them: “Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you.”
On the other hand, the knowledge of selfish love is called foolishness and wickedness. The dividing line between the two, True Father told us, is the sex organs, which he also called “the dividing line between heaven and hell.”
As the fruit of love, Eve was closest to God. In Father’s words: “She was God’s future partner, the body of God Himself, the partner of love closest to Him.” In that position, God gave the Commandment to Eve directly: “When a command is given, it is given to the closest person. When leaving your house, do you give orders to the person closest to or farthest from you? You would give the order to the person closest to you, and that is why God said, ‘Do not eat of the fruit of good and evil’ to Eve.”
Eve could amplify the Commandment given Adam.
The Bible says the Commandment went to Adam prior to Eve’s creation, but Principle is clear that God gave it to them both. Thus Eve could amplify the Commandment given Adam when conversing with the serpent, adding that not only they should not eat the fruit, but “neither shall ye touch it.”
(Citations: Exposition of Divine Principle, p. 171; Gen 4:1, 17, 25, 38:26, Judges 11:39, 19:25, I Sam 1:19, 1 Kings 1:4, Mt 1:25—all King James Version; John 16:13; Prov 1:20, 3:18, 4:1, 4:6, inter alia; “In Search of the Origin of the Universe,” in Pyeong Hwa Gyeong; Exposition of Divine Principle, pp. 66-67; First Cheon Seong Gyeong, 1997.2.13, p. 1772-73; Gen 3:3.)
