Wozner and Abiri on the Tree of Knowledge and the Birth of Normativity @TAU_LAW

Shai Wozner, Tel Aviv University, and Gilad Abiri, Yale University Law School, have published The Tree of Knowledge and the Birth of Normativity at 27 Jewish Law Association Studies 239 (2017). Here is the abstract.

The constitutive myth of the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Knowledge is central to the biblical law. It deals with fundamental normative and legal issues – commandment, prohibition, sin and punishment – combines the main aspects of nomos and narrative, and represents an organizing story upon which the thick normativity of biblical precepts and prohibitions is based. In the paper, we would like to suggest a new interpretation of the myth, according to which the tree of knowledge was an ordinary tree and its fruits were normal fruits. Its uniqueness was constituted only by Divine commandment and prohibition, which were put in place in order to enable Adam and Eve to break the law. Infringing the law and eating from the forbidden fruit was the means by which God taught Adam and Eve the notions of good and evil. In order to fully grasp normativity, it was necessary for Adam and Eve to violate the Divine command at least on one occasion. In this reading, God is not a stringent law-maker, but rather a teacher teaching mankind an important lesson. When commanding Adam and Eve to refrain from partaking of the fruit, his actual goal was not to hinder them from eating but to afford them an opportunity to break the law and to learn the notion of good and evil. It was an exercise in educational manipulation, foreseeing their failure and sin. The sin of eating from the tree of knowledge was not a derailment of the Divine program, but rather its performance.

The full text is not available from SSRN.