The Tree of Knowledge and the Law of Yahweh
(Psalm 19)
Published in On the Way to the Postmodern: Old Testament Essays 1967-1998, Volume 2 (JSOTSup, 292; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998), pp. 708-15The terminology used to describe the law of Yahweh in the second half of Psalm 19 is reminiscent of the description of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2.9, 17; 3.5-7). It is here suggested that the author of Ps. 19.7-14 intended by his allusions to Gen. 23 to assert the superiority of the law to the tree of knowledge as a means of obtaining wisdom.
The terms of interest are principally the Þve two-word phrases that form the second halves of the Þve stichoi vv. 8-10a.
(1) m롪bat nepe¡ 'reviving the life'. Both the verb and the noun are capable of a wide range of meanings, so that it is difÞcult to Þx the precise sense; but it is very likely that we have here a metaphor from food, which restores a person's vitality (nepe¡). The phrase is sometimes used speciÞcally of food: Lam. 1.11 'They trade their treasures for food to revive their strength' (lëh塪b nepe¡); 1.19 'my priests and my elders . . . sought food to revive their strength' (wëy塪bû 'et-nap¡åm). Nepe¡ is found in a metaphorical sense, though still in the context of food, in the following passages among others: Ps. 23 3 'he restores my life' (nap¡ª yë¡ôbb); Prov. 24.14 'Wisdom is like a honey to one's nepe¡'; Isa. 65.3 'Hear, that your nepe¡ may live' (cf. 'come buy, and eat', v. 1). It is therefore probable that the law of Yahweh is being described in Ps. 19.8 as 'imparting refreshment to the inner man, his true soul-food'./1/
Likewise the most obvious fact about the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is that it is food; though it is not 'given for food' to the man like the other trees of the garden (Gen. 2.16-17), it shares with them the quality of being 'good for food' (Ýôb lëma'ÿkål, Gen. 3.6). The eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge did not however produce the wisdom hoped for, whereas the restorative food of the law brings true wisdom, as the next phrase makes clear.
(ii) makªmat petª 'making the simple wise'. This is exactly the function of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Regardless of the precise interpretation we put upon 'good and evil', it is plain that Eve found the tree to be nemåd lëhakªl (Gen. 3.6),/2/ 'to be coveted in order to become wise', 'attractive as a means of wisdom'./3/ Petª may then be taken as the psalmist's description of Adam and Eve in their state of innocence; it does not necessarily have a bad connotation (cf. Ps. 116.6),/4/ and it could well be translated 'impressionable'./5/ Many descriptions of the petª in the wisdom literature would well suit the case of Adam and Eve: the petª believes everything he hears (Prov. 14.15), he lacks 'ormâ (Prov. 1.4; 8.5; and cf. the description of the snake as 'årûm, Gen. 3.1), bªnâ (Ps. 119.130), okmâ (Prov. 21.11), and da'at (Prov. 14.18). There is also the implication that the petª is young and immature/6/ (for petª and na'ar in parallelism, cf. Prov. 1.4), a view that may underlie the Genesis 3 narrative, for the knowledge of good and evil is regarded in some other passages as something not within the capacity of children (Deut. 1.39) but acquired by them as they mature (Isa. 7.15-16). It is clear that the 'fall' of Genesis 3 is not represented simply as a progression from immaturity to maturity, but it is difÞcult to eliminate such an idea altogether from the story./7/
(iii) mëammëê lb 'making the heart rejoice'. There seems to be no direct verbal parallel between this phrase and the description of the tree of knowledge, but it is not difÞcult to see a connection of thought. What is nemåd lëmar'eh (Gen. 2.9), 'desirable to look at', and ta'ÿwâ lå'nayim, 'a thing desired by the eyes', will 'make the heart rejoice' when it is obtained./8/ Further, since it is a tree of knowledge, we may note the frequent connections, especially in Proverbs, between wisdom and joy, for example, 'a wise son makes a glad father' (Prov. 10.1; 15.20; cf. 17.21; 22.15, 24, 25; 29.3); 'to the one who pleases him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy' (Eccl. 2.26); 'I [Wisdom] was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always' (Prov. 8.30-31).
However, a clue to a closer connection between 'rejoicing the heart' and the tree of knowledge lies in the possibility that the psalmist envisaged the tree of knowledge as a vine, a view that is well attested in rabbinic times,/9/ and that could easily have been much earlier,/10/ especially in the light of the association of drunkenness and sin (cf. Gen. 9.20-27; 19.31-38; Prov. 31.4-5; Hos. 4.18). Wine is often referred to as 'gladdening the heart': it is what cheers (hamëamma) gods and men (Judg. 9.13), it gladdens (yëamma) life (Eccl. 10.19), it gladdens the heart of men (yëamma lëbab-'ënô¡, Ps. 104.15; cf. Ecclus 21.27). A Qumran text of Ecclesiasticus 51 (11QPsaSirach) speaks of 'grapes [that] gladden the heart ('nbym ymw)./11/ The probable meaning of the Semitic root m 'to grow, be high' (cf. Akk. ¡amåu 'to grow high' [of a plant]; Arab. ¡amaa 'to be high'; and perhaps cf. also Heb. ßåma 'to grow')/12/ is very appropriate when applied to wine as that which 'makes high' 'elevates'. The law of Yahweh, according to the psalmist, has the same effect as the fruit of the vine, the tree of knowledge: it 'elates' the heart with joy.
(iv) më'ªrat 'ênayim 'enlightening the eyes'. The similarity with the fruit of the tree of knowledge is here unmistakable. It is sometimes suggested that the phrase should be understood as 'causing the eyes to shine', i.e. giving new vigour,/13/ which is undoubtedly the sense in 'ørû 'ênay 'my eyes have become bright' (1 Sam. 14.29), i.e. my strength has returned./14/ But such an interpretation here would make më'ªrat 'ênayim merely equivalent to the Þrst phrase m롪bat nepe¡, which is unlikely, since the other three phrases refer to different aspects of the tree and one would expect likewise a differentiation between these two phrases. It seems preferable therefore to follow the literal meaning of the words, especially since the law is elsewhere often called a light (e.g. Prov. 6.23 nr mißwâ wëtôrâ 'ôr; Ps. 119.105 nr lëraglª dëbårëkå wë'ôr linëtªbåtª./15/
In the Genesis 3 narrative we Þnd that after Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge 'their eyes were opened' (wattipaqanâ 'ênê ¡ënêhem, 3.7). Påqa 'ênayim often means 'to open the eyes after sleep', but sometimes metaphorically 'to cause someone to become aware of something' by means of supernatural insight: thus God opened Hagar's eyes (Gen. 21.19); Elisha prays to God to open the eyes of the young man to see the mountain full of horses and chariots of Þre (2 Kgs 6.17). In this sense the phrase is exactly equivalent to gilâ 'ênayim as in Num. 22.31: Yahweh opened (wayëgal) the eyes of Balaam and he saw the angel of Yahweh on the path./16/ With this we may compare 'Open thou my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law' (Ps. 119.18). The law of Yahweh as a light to the eyes is thus compared with the fruit of the tree that brought knowledge (wayydë'û, Gen. 3.7) through the opening of the eyes./17/
(v) 'ômedet lå'ad 'enduring forever'. A contrast with the fruit of the tree of knowledge may be here discerned, in that the result of the acquisition of that knowledge was the deprivation of access to the tree of life (Gen. 3.22-24), and the sentence of môt tåmût (2.17; cf. 3.19). The fear of Yahweh (yir'at yhwh), on the other hand, which involves departing from evil (Prov. 15.6) and hating it (Prov. 7.13), is a bringer of life (Ps. 34.12-13 'I will teach you the fear of Yahweh. Who is there who desires life and covets many days?'; cf. Prov. 10.27 'The fear of Yahweh prolongs life'; 19.23 'The fear of Yahweh leads to life'; and cf. also 22.4; 23.17-18).
The suggestion has often been made to emend yir'at (v. 10), which seems out of place among the terms tôrâ, 'dût, piqqûdªm, mißwâ and mi¡påݪm, to 'imrat 'word of' Yahweh./18/ Yet if the frequent connection between 'the fear of Yahweh' and wisdom or knowledge is recalled (cf. Prov. 2.5; 9.10; 11.7, 29; 15.33; Ps. 111.10; Isa. 11.2), and if the suggestion is correct that the law is here contrasted with the tree of knowledge as a means to the acquiring of knowledge, the parallel between yir'at yhwh and the various terms for the law becomes closer, so that the mt may be allowed to stand./19/
Ps. 19.8-10a may thus be seen as a meditation upon the law of Yahweh as the source of wisdom, in the light of the Genesis 3 narrative concerning the tree of knowledge./20/ If so, a point of contact between the two halves of the psalm, additional to those already pointed out by others,/21/ becomes apparent: the background of Ps. 19.1-6 is the creation narrative of Genesis 1, that of 19.7-14 the Eden narrative of Genesis 23.
A question may Þnally be raised whether the Eden narrative may not underlie the language of the petition of vv. 12-15, especially v. 14, where pe¡a' rab, 'al-yim¡ëlû-bª and zdªm may be reminiscent of Genesis 23. 'The great transgression', which has proved problematic to exegetes,/22/ is provided with a concrete reference if the psalmist is thinking of Genesis 3, no matter whether he regarded Adam's sin as disobedience, hybris, or sexual misbehavior./23/ 'Let them [presumptuous sins, or men]/24/ not reign over me' recalls the divine address to Cain wë'attâ tim¡ôl-bô (Gen. 4.7),/25/ where sin is represented as a crouching animal (røbß) attempting to gain the mastery over the human. It is possible also that the psalmist is thinking of the snake of Genesis 3 when he speaks of the zdªm;/26/ for its questioning of God's commandment (Gen. 3.1) and imputation of envy to God (3.5) may fairly be termed presumption, and the curse upon it to go on its belly and eat dust (3.14) is likewise a Þtting punishment for the sin of presumption./27//