To eat of the tree of knowledge - Вкушать от древа познания
The first book of the Old Testament opens with an
account of the creation of the world by God and the
origin of sin in the serpent’s temptation of Adam
through his wife. It contains a narrative of the blissful
life of Adam and Eve in the happy Garden of Eden.
There every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good
for food grew abundantly. There the animals lived at
peace with man and with each other. There man and
woman knew no shame, because they knew no ill. It was
the age of innocence. But this glad time was short, the
sunshine was soon clouded. The sad story is told of the
fall of Adam and Eve, their loss of innocence, their expulsion from Eden, and the doom of labour, of sorrow,
and of death pronounced on them and their posterity.
In the midst of the garden grew the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, and God had forbidden
man to eat of its fruit saying “ In the day that thou
eatest thereof thou shall surely die” . But the serpent
was cunning, and the woman weak and credulous: he
persuaded her to eat of the fatal fruit, and she gave
of it to her husband. No sooner had they tasted it than the eyes of both of them were opened, they knew that
they were naked, and filled with shame and confusion
they hid their nakedness under aprons of fig-leaves: the
age of innocence was gone for ever.
That woeful day God walked into the garden, as his
custom was, in the cool of the evening. Adam and Eve
hid behind the trees, ashamed to be seen by him naked. But he called them forth from the thicket, and
learning from the abashed couple how they had disobeyed his command by eating of the tree of knowledge,
he flew into a towering passion. He cursed the serpent,
condemning him to go on his belly, to eat dust, and to
be the enemy of mankind all the days of his life. He
cursed the ground, condemning it to bring forth thorns
and thistles. He cursed the woman, condemning her to
bear children in sorrow and to be in subjection to her
husband. He cursed the man, condemning him to wring
his daily bread from the ground in the sweat of his
brow, and finally to return to the dust out of which he
had been taken.
Having relieved his feelings by these maledictions,
the irascible deity relented so far as to make coats of
skins for the culprits to replace their scanty aprons of
fig-leaves, and clad in these new garments the shamefaced pair retreated among the trees, and the shadows
deepened on Paradise Lost.
In modern speech the words to eat or taste of the
tree of knowledge mean to acquire knowledge, and are
used mostly ironically.
.. .Бог разрешил Адаму вкушать плоды со всех деревьев, за исключением дерева познания добра и зла, к плодам которого он запретил прикасаться под угрозой смерти... Среди зверей, которых создал бог, наибольшей хитростшо отличался змей. Однажды он спросил у женщины, почему бог запретил им есть плоды с дерева познания добра и зла. И женщина ответила на это: «Чтобы мы не умерли». «Вы ни в коем случае не умрете», — уверял ее змей и доказывал, что бог не велит им есть плоды с этого дерева, опасаясь, что у людей откроются глаза и они познают добро и зло так же, как и сам бог. Женщина внимательно посмотрела на дерево познания добра и зла и увидела, как прекрасно оно и его плоды, дающие мудрость. И она сорвала запретный плод, съела его, а потом уговорила мужа, чтобы он последовал ее примеру. .. Бог выгнал Адама и Еву из рая, ибо не хотел Допустить, чтобы они съели плоды с дерева жизни и таким путем обрели бессмертие.