This account emphasizes knowledge because knowledge is the defining characteristic of being God-like. It then becomes necessary to understand what exactly is meant by knowledge in Genesis 2-3, and how possessing it makes one like God. According to Legaspi, the knowledge that is communicated by eating fruit from “the tree of the knowledge of good and bad” is all that there is to be known. This is explained as “good and evil” being opposites which stand for the whole of knowledge in general. Therefore, knowledge of “good and bad” is really absolute knowledge and thus elevates humans to a God-like status in this regard. Eating, particularly, is important in this narrative, because it reveals the human position as one that is dependent on nourishment from the earth, and such nourishment is given freely by God. I also believe the act of eating is more meaningful than simply looking at or touching a special object because eating is a very intentional action. One could accidentally look at an object, for example, but it takes a concerted effort to pick the fruit, chew and swallow. There is no doubt in this scenario that Adam and Eve deliberately and knowingly disobeyed God’s wishes. This means that Adam and Eve’s disobedience was an intentional turning from God out of selfish want for the knowledge with which they were tempted.
Such an act makes Adam and Eve both more and less God-like. They are more God-like in the sense that after eating of the forbidden tree they possess God-like knowledge which they did not previously. They are less God-like in that they acted intentioannly directly contrary to God’s wishes. It might be merciful, then, that God banishes them from the Garden of Eden, because He sees that they may be further tempted, and He prevents that from happening by exiling them from the garden.
Kelsey's Foundations of Theology Responses 