tree of knowledge
Eden's pivotal plant
The tree of knowledge, in the biblical Book of Genesis, is the tree in the Garden of Eden whose fruit God forbade Adam and Eve to eat.
Their eating it brought knowledge of good and evil and caused their expulsion from paradise.
The phrase evokes forbidden knowledge or the consequences of seeking it: Some discoveries are fruit from the tree of knowledge—once tasted, there's no going back.
- forbidden fruitEnticing thing that's prohibited
- bite of the appleOpportunity to attempt something
- appleCrisp tree fruit
- symbolsMarks conveying meaning
- moralConcerning right conduct
genesis · understanding · divine wisdom · cognition · science · culture · sin · fall of man · loss of innocence · good and evil · temptation · Adam and Eve · discernment · Garden of Eden · original sin · awareness · learning · creation narrative
- Knowledge metaphorslight bulb, enlightenment, illumination, dawn, spark
- Christian loreAdam, Eve, Adam and Eve, Noah, Satan
- Good and Evilgood, evil, good versus evil, virtue and vice, morality
- GenesisAdam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac
- plant loremandrake, mistletoe, rowan, wolfsbane, yew
- sacred plantssacred oak, sacred grove, burning bush, banyan, cedar of Lebanon