tree of knowledge of good and evil

American  

noun

1. the tree in the Garden of Eden bearing the forbidden fruit that was tasted by Adam and Eve. Genesis 2:17; 3:6–24.

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tree of knowledge of good and evil British  

noun

1. Old Testament the tree in the Garden of Eden bearing the forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve ate, thus incurring loss of primal innocence (Genesis 2:9; 3:2–7)

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tree of knowledge of good and evil Cultural  

1. A tree in the Garden of Eden, the fruit of which God forbade Adam and Eve to eat.

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They did eat the forbidden fruit, and their disobedience brought about the Fall of Man.

Etymology

Origin of tree of knowledge of good and evil

First recorded in 1525–35

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tree of knowledge of good and evil

Each holds a tantalizing apple, plucked from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 18, 2024

Genesis does not name the guilty fruit at all; it is merely "the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil."

From Time Magazine Archive

The Lord God had told Adam, "Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thow shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thow shalt surely die."

From Bible Romances First Series by G. W. (George William) Foote

He has tasted of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and begins dimly to see his own nakedness.

From The Root of Evil by Thomas Dixon

Is not all experience just the eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and nothing more?

From The Will to Believe : and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James