[Opinion] Redefining evil: How postmodern ideologies twist biblical morality
[Excerpts]
In the Genesis creation story, Adam and Eve are warned against eating from “the tree of knowledge of good and evil” (2:16). But in the Garden of Eden, the plot moves quickly, when the snake, in the role of instigator, tells Eve that by eating the forbidden fruit, “your eyes will be opened” and, like God, you will be able to distinguish between good and evil (3:5). Such knowledge is the essence of human existence, and once they acquired it, Adam and Eve were expelled from the artificial paradise, and history, with all its moral complexities, began.
The biblical opening also equates good with the act of creation, and the different stages are summarized with the words “and God saw it was good.” Evil, as the opposite of good, is destruction – physical as well as interpersonal and societal.
Based on this foundation, the Torah presents the story of Cain’s murder of his brother Abel, highlighting the most irreversibly destructive and immoral of human actions. In the name of justice, Cain is punished for his evil actions, and must bear this painful punishment for the rest of his life (4:13).
In this universal framework for defining human behavior, the contrast between good and evil and between justice and injustice are fundamental, and these themes continue to be central throughout the Hebrew Bible and later, in Jewish texts and practice, as well in the wider Western canon.
