Chapter 188 — On the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the commandment for the first man

Now, this state enjoyed by man depended on the submission of the human will to God. In order therefore that man might become accustomed from the very beginning to following God’s will, God laid certain precepts on him: man could eat of all the other trees in Paradise, but he was forbidden under pain of death to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Eating of the fruit of this tree was prohibited, not because it was evil in itself, but that at least in this slight matter man might have some precept to observe for the sole reason that it was so commanded by God. Hence eating of the fruit of this tree was evil because it was forbidden. The tree was called the tree of knowledge of good and evil, not because it had the power to cause knowledge, but because of would happen afterward, namely, because by eating of it man learned by experience the difference between the good of obedience and the evil of disobedience.