Chapter V.
The commandment of not eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil is examined, and the difficulties that arise regarding it are resolved.
26. And the Lord God commanded Adam, saying: Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat: But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death. (Genesis, II, 16 and 17). In what manner, where he commanded to eat of every tree, he singularly said, Thou shalt eat: but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, in the plural number, Ye shall not eat, he said, is not an idle question. But if you pay close attention, it can be concluded by the authority of the Scriptures. For whatever is good, that is to be done; and whatever is good and to be done, it is in harmony and consistent. But whatever is evil, that is discordant, disordered, and separate. And therefore, the Lord, always seeking unity, commanded according to unity. Finally, he who made both makes unity. Not only both, but also all are made one. For he commanded us to be one body and one spirit. But the only-begotten, since He is in unity with the Father, is very closely joined to the Father: because the Word was with God. Furthermore, He says: I and the Father are one (John 10:30); to show that He has unity of majesty and divinity with the Father. But He also commanded us to be one, and transferred the likeness of His own nature and unity onto us through the adoption of grace, saying: As the Father and I are one, so may they also be one with us (John 17:22). Therefore, when it commands what is good, it commands it as if to one person, saying, 'Eat.' For unity cannot transgress. But when it speaks about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it says that it should not be eaten, as if speaking to many, 'You shall not eat.' For what is prohibitive is commanded to many. However, I think differently, and I find in the very word of God what will happen. He commanded Adam alone to eat from every tree, knowing that he would obey. But regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he says not singularly, but plurally, that it should not be eaten. For he knew that the woman had been deceitful, and therefore he showed through plurality that they would not keep their promise, because there is a diverse opinion among many.
27. And as far as the opinion of the Seventy men is concerned, that which was troublesome has been resolved. But because Symmachus singularly said both, we understand that he followed this because God also speaks to the people in the law singularly, as you have it: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one (Deut. VI, 4); and, You shall love the Lord your God (Ibid. 6). Symmachus's interpretation does not prejudice me, who was unable to see the unity of the Father and the Son, although both Aquila and he have confessed it occasionally in their discourse. And let no one think that he addresses our superior with respect to the people of God, who is about to transgress the divine commandments individually; for even the people of the Jews violated the prescribed laws individually. For the law is spiritual, and therefore God addressed the divine people with one message in speech and another in predestination. Finally, he said: 'You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk' (Exodus 34:26).
28. The series of celestial teachings would seem easy, unless the question raised by many, to which we must respond; so that simple minds are not led astray by malicious interpretation. Indeed, many, whose authority is Apelles, as you have in the thirty-eighth volume of his work, pose these questions: How does the tree of life seem to contribute more to life than the breath of God? Then if God did not make man perfect; but each person acquires their own perfection of virtue through their own diligence: does it not seem that a person gains more for themselves than God bestowed upon them? The third objection is raised: And if man had not tasted death, certainly he could not know what he had not tasted. Therefore, if he had not tasted, he did not know; if he did not know, he could not fear. Therefore, God in vain presented death as a terror, which men did not fear.
29. Let us therefore learn that there in the garden, where God also produced the tree of life, he produced the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For you have that he produced the tree of life in the midst of paradise, that is, in the middle of the garden. For among us, 'in the midst' is understood to mean that he produced it in the middle. Therefore, both life and the cause of death were in the middle of paradise. Understand that it was not man who made life, but either by working or by keeping the commandments of God he was able to find it. Now, life, as the Apostle said, was hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). Therefore, man, whether in the shadow of life for the future life, because this shadow is our life on earth now, or whether in a certain pledge of life, because he had the breath of God. Therefore, he had the pledge of immortality: but being placed in the shadow of life, he could not see and grasp the hidden life with Christ in God by some common touch and sight. And if not yet a sinner, certainly not of an incorruptible and inviolable nature; for he who has fallen into sin is not yet a sinner. Indeed, he was in the shadow of life; but those who are sinners are in the shadow of death. For the people of sinners, as Isaiah teaches (Isaiah 9:2), sat in the shadow of death, until the light arose through the grace of God, not through their own merit. Therefore, there is no distinction between the breath of God and the food of the tree of life. No man can claim to possess more than what has been bestowed upon him by divine generosity. Would that we could hold onto what has been received. Indeed, our efforts serve to regain what has been entrusted to us. The third point, as was proposed, is that those who have not tasted death cannot fear it, and therefore easily find absolution through the common experience of nature. For it is inherent in the nature of all living beings to instinctively recoil from harmful things, even if they have not yet experienced harm themselves. For indeed, from the very moment of its birth, a dove experiences the terror of a hawk. From where do wolves, formidable to sheep, receive their fear, and from where do birds of prey, their young? For if in those animals that are irrational, there is a natural fear of the opposite species of animals, so much so that they even perceive the sense of avoiding death, how much more should there have been a certain natural opinion of fearing death in the first human being, who is certainly the most full of reason.