but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”
World English Bible
This verse is examined in more than one Scripture Analysis section. Each lens is shown on its own terms, in the section's own words; GEBible reaches no verdict of its own.
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WEB World English Bible Public Domain ✓
but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”
World English Bible
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Genesis 1:29 has God giving the humans 'every herb bearing seed' and 'every tree' with seed-bearing fruit for food, without restriction. Genesis 2:17 places one tree explicitly off-limits: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Critical scholarship: Usually considered reconciled.
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Each section sets the viewpoints side by side; you weigh the evidence. Here, "critical scholarship" means academic study, not a value judgment. How this is built →
Within each section, grouped by shared field or question type — not a cross-section comparison.
This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"Genesis 2:17 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/genesis/2/17?version=WEB (retrieved 26 August 2026).