I saw this topic on a christian forum my friend introduced me to recently but unfortunately the moderators blocked it and did not want people to respond to it for some unknown reasons and felt it will be good to see the response of other christians here.

"Was Eve justified in eating of the tree of knowledge?

I know that most consider Eve disobeying God as what lead to the so called fall of man and some say the first sin.

First, since Satan was already cast from heaven and appeared in the garden as the talking snake, I would say that sin was already in existence before Eve ate of the tree of knowledge. Also, the evil tempting by Satan was also before she ate.
Further, the tree of knowledge contained the information of all sins and things evil so God must have known of these sins before hand. Jesus said that all one need do to sin is think about it. The thinking being more or less as bad as the sin itself.
If God is to be the epitome of all things then He would not only be the personification of good but also of evil. Perhaps this is why Christians can say that He is love while at the same time knowing that He is capable of great destruction/evil and genocide.

If Eve had not eaten of the tree of knowledge then man would be as morally bright as any of the lesser animals. This would not be good.
Without the knowledge of good and evil, it is impossible for mankind to form a moral sense.
I do not think that this would be God’s plan. To keep mankind ignorant of morals seems just to silly to contemplate.

Those who believe we fell from Eden must then believe that we are not to have moral sense. Please justify if possible.

Literal scripture says that God wanted obedience without question. As a moral leader, it is difficult to see why He would not want Eve to know, morally, why she was to follow. This would also not give her free will. Something some believe God gave us. I believe that freedom is taken, not given.

We can know that Eve did gain moral sense from the tree of knowledge because right after eating of it she hid and made to cover her unclothedness.

Deuteronomy 32:4
He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

To believe that Eve fell, we would have to wonder about the above quote. If God created Satan perfect and he somehow could thwart the perfection that God built into him then one can say that that perfection was imperfect because it did not remain so. The same would apply to Eve. Perfection cannot turn to imperfection because that would mean that God Himself might some day become imperfect.
If Eve was perfect then she would have made the perfect choice. Did She?

Should man have a moral sense?
Did God want to deny us a moral sense?
Did Eve do the right thing by reaching out for it?
If the snake was under Satan’s control then why punish it instead of Satan?
As In Job, was Satan just acting as God’s loyal opposition?
Why bring Satan to Eden and pit this supernatural deceiver of all men against a young innocent Eve. She would have no chance at defending herself?

The idea of a fall in Eden just does not want to wash for me. It would show God as a trickster and one who would deny mankind a moral sense. It would also show His perfect works as not worth much if Satan and then Eve and all of us can thwart this perfect programming so easily.

Thoughts."

I don't believe in all these myths but let me chime in here. What do you mean by justification? At least justification requires an analysis of whether an action is right or wrong at least. But in the case of Eve according to the bible she(eve) didn't have the capability to make this analysis until after she had already eaten the fruit so that is a moot question. Eve was neither justified nor unjustified because it was simply an action she took like any action she would have taken since according to the bible eve had no ability to judge the consequences of that action. God  according to the story in the book of genesis told her and adam not to eat from the tree and the snake who was the bible god's enemy deceived her and told her to eat from the tree, Even if one accepts that obeying the former was good and obeying the latter was evil, since eve couldn't distinguish good from evil, there was no reason for her to assume that obeying the bible God's command was in any way a superior or better choice to obeying the serpents command. Prior to eating from the tree any action Eve took couldn't be qualified by the question of whether or not she was justified in taking that action at all because she had no knowledge of god or bad.

I know myths are not meant to make any sense but that is just what it is. I find it hard to understand that people agree that this is how death came into the world because adam and eve were deceived to eat from a tree from the enemy of their god who was at the same time like a father figure unto them, a father that was suppose to protect them but he allowed his worst enemy to deceive them despite the fact that they had absolute no knowledge or right and wrong. This entire mythical tale is so ludicrous

Just as Toney has said myths are never meant to make any sense at all. Some christians see how nonsensical the entire tale is and prefer to call it an allegory because it just doesn't make sense how can a father punish his children for doing that which they do not know? The story is the same as putting a loaded gun in your baby's crib and after the gun goes off for one reason or the other the father blames the baby. The whole tale is so nonsensical to the extent that many christians themselves do not accept it as a historical even but as an allegory.

Yahweh who was supposed to protect his innocent children that know nothing from harm allowed his enemy to come inside the garden and deceive them . This tale makes no sense at all, after the serpent somehow sneaks into the garden he the went ahead and told eve that she will not die if she eats of the fruit which later turns out to be the truth because according to the bible both adam and eve lived for hundreds of years. While yahweh was lying to adam and eve that they will die once they eat of the tree the serpent was the one that told them that they will know the difference between right and wrong etc.

Do people really believe that this ridiculous event is what lead to the entrance of sin and death into the world? This nonsense tale is what made the legs of snakes to disappear, turned animals into carnivores, lead to the existence of natural disasters like earth quakes, diseases and also lead to the narrowing of women's birth canals etc? This hypothesis is so so prospesterouss. I laugh in hausa.

Its all a Fairy tale.
Who created d same tree of knowledge?
Y didnt he remove it or baricade it lyk he did eden so dat eve wont be able to reach it?

interesting questions raised by the op.

why is the woman that the bible is blaming or suggesting that transgressed while the man, her partner, created earlier than her is excused, because he wondered about, leaving her unprotected or supported away from the influence of the satanic snake?

what job did Adam have to keep him away from his partner, mate when everything was just there for their taking, so much so that it was snake that had to be her companion and adviser?

is a tree full of knowledge when already humans have brains in their heads and Adam was already the one who named all things, according to the bibles without saying that God would have inspired him of the names of things?

if there is a tree of knowledge, then God would not have given man any brain but might have let man eat knowledge and acquires enough from ingesting "it" from the source.

as a muslim, the blame was on Adam and Eve, whereas responsibility, primarily on this issue fell on Adam. what you find in the Quranic narration is that the tree was just a tree of the trial of the couple, so that at long last they could be made to start their earthly lives, where they will have children, we being members of the children of Adam and Eve.

Satan made suggestion because he was already jealous of Adam the first man, and he being a jinn an earlier created specie is endowed with free will, unlike the Angels to obey or disobey. hence he did not prostrate to Adam upon being commanded.

The original and permanent sin are upon Satan the rejected, while original mercy and forgiveness are upon man, Adam and Eve. Everyone is responsible for his/her own action and the consequences of the sum total of it at the end.

please check the below thread as the issue of Adam and Eve and eating from the tree has being treated before:

Topic: Before The Advent Of Sin, Did Adam And Eve Know How To Procreate?

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-754035.0.html

^^the questions asked by the op are a bit deep, even though the topic is the same.

unless one wants to copy and paste his post on the other thread, and at the same time run the risk of derailing it.

this thread is particularly about eve and the choices she made in eden, and not necessarily about procreation.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
even you deny that man {Eve included} already had enough knowledge before being told about the tree, long before "Eve" ate from it,

you will be denying many issues that you believe as a christian -
man is the image of God because He created them in the images of father, son and holy spirit.
unless these 3 as 1 are lacking in knowledge that satan as a snake can fool them too, the idea that Eve is the only one responsible will be questionable, along with whether the 3 as 1 are truly competent, protective, knowledgeable, and if man is in their own image or even the 3 are really 1 or each is a fully independent and separate God. the question put not only trial of man into question, but also the involvement of God or gods in the whole affair.

But didn't Adam named all things and Eve was from Adam? What knowledge could be lacking that it is contained in the tree?
I thought "all things" means all. Or it doesn't from the christian position?

It is ironic that somebody must have chopped down the tree in Iraq and used it as fire wood. That is some cooking knowledge.

what i am saying here tpia@ id that the fallacy of Eden being a garden on earth and Eve being blamed for all of the temporary wrong of Adam and herself are just terrible.

God had designed what He had designed; the outcome which is expelling them from Paradise, a place that they long to return to. You see their children hoping to return to it?

Should man have a moral sense?
Did God want to deny us a moral sense?
Did Eve do the right thing by reaching out for it?

the issue here isnt necessarily moral sense but rebellion.

Further, the tree of knowledge contained the information of all sins and things evil

a bit too vague, and no, i dont think that's what the tree of knowledge was about.

can you post more about how you reached this conclusion.

the bible says igboran san ju ebo lo, ifeti sile si san ju orangbo lo.

thats my take on the subject