Tree of Knowledge
The Biblical Tree of Knowledge, more formally Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil, must be a pun, because the story has no relation at all to goodness, evil, or actual knowledge. Rather, we find many things that are homonymous with good & evil: In the literal story, there’s “clothing & nakedness”, and in the implied story also “desire & sex”. To the spooks, the main pun may be with “impressions & appearances”, since that is what all their spooky punnery revolves around.
In a nutshell
The Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil, written עץ הדעת טוב ורע ˁṣ hdˁt ṭwb wrˁ ets ha-dat tob wa-raa, has several puns & meanings:
- On the surface, ṭwb-w-rˁ simply means “good” & “evil”. However, this has no relation whatsoever to the story. Adam & Eve don’t do anything that’s particularly good or evil, either before or after they eat from the tree.
- But as a surface-story pun, ṭwb-w-rˁ is close to twb-w-ˁry for “clothing” & “nakedness”. This is why Adam & Eve suddenly need clothing to cover their nakedness. It’s simply a pun! That word for clothing also means “fig tree”, that’s probably why they’re using fig leaves. Both terms are rare though.
- More explicitly, ṭwb-w-rˁ also puns with tˀb-w-ˁry for “desire” & “sex”. That’s why the story is always interpreted as Adam & Eve having sex after eating from the tree in Genesis 3:6. In the actual text, this doesn’t happen until Genesis 4:1. Again, the pun trumps the literal story.
- As for the hidden spooky meaning: ṭwb-w-rˁ puns with ṭbˁ-w-rˀh for “impression” & “appearance”. This relates to Adam & Eve punning with “disguise” & “show”. Like almost all Biblical stories, Genesis is a parable on why rulers need to disguise their true corrupt nature!
- As for the knowledge: That word can also mean skill & cunning, so the whole tree phrase can be given a spook flavor.
Semitic twb-w-ˁry for “clothing & nakedness”
Good & evil pun with “clothing & nakedness”, if that’s written as תוב וערי twb-w-ˁry tawb wa-aray.
This word for “clothing” is rare and occurs only in Aramaic & Arabic. But as for evidence, the same spelling means “fig tree”, and Adam & Eve do indeed use fig leaves for clothing in Genesis 3:7 (written with a different word). There’s no other explanation why anyone would try to wear fig leaves, they’re totally unsuited. Again, it’s all a pun!
This pun is also the only link between eating from a tree of “good & evil” and suddenly thinking about “clothing & nakedness”. Neither clothing nor nakedness have anything to do with good or evil. Rather, all famous yet unexplained Biblical associations are derived from hidden spooky puns!
Aramaic, Arabic twb = clothing, fig tree
תוב twb : clothing; the garbed part of the body (??) — Aramaic (CAL)
ثَوْب ṯwb ṯawb : dress, garment; cloth, material; outward appearance; (in the plural) clothes, clothing — Arabic (Wikt)
thobe; thawb; thoub : an ankle-length robe with long sleeves worn by some Arab men — English (Wikt)
תוב twb : wild fig tree — Aramaic (CAL)
Hebrew, Aramaic ˁry = bare, naked, shame
Semitic tˀb-w-ˁry for “desire & sex”
Adam & Eve are very often interpreted as gaining sexual knowledge from the tree of “knowledge”. However, the Bible texts describes sex between Adam & Eve only in Genesis 4:1, in a different chapter, after they have left Eden. And of course, while desire & sex can definitely feel “good”, they have nothing at all to do with the concept of good & evil.
Again, there is no relation whatsoever in the story to the Tree of Knowledge, except via spooky punnery: The root ˁry for “naked” is also used to describe sexual contact. And if the spelling for “good” is changed to tˀb, it means “desire”. Thus, “good & evil” has become “desire & sex”.
Hebrew, Aramaic tˀb = desire, longing, appetite
Hebrew, Aramaic ˁry = naked, stimulation, sex
ערה ˁrh : lay bare, uncover; pour out; sexual contact; made himself naked — Hebrew (Klein)
עריה ˁryh : ejaculation (of the semen) — Hebrew (Klein)
ערי ˁry : to stimulate, esp. to excite the sexual organ by contact; to be interwoven, entangled, caught; to intermix (of liquids), pour; to interweave, intertwine; come into intimate contact — Hebrew (Jastrow)
ערוה ˁrwh : nudeness; inappropriate personal matters; figurative of incest and of secrets — Aramaic (CAL)
Semitic ṭbˁ-w-rˀ for “impression & appearance”
Even for the spooks, the Bible is not mainly about sex, but about spookery. The main spook pun for “good & evil” is probably something like טבע וראי ṭbˁ-w-rˀy teva-wa-rii for “impression & appearance”. To the spooks, Genesis is a narrative about the “genesis” of spookery, i.e. how rulers came to disguise themselves.
The Tree of Knowledge as a “scheme of impressions & appearances” is therefore a fitting punny sapling-sibling, and logical preliminary stage, to the Tree of Life as the “scheme of a show”. After merely polishing up their impression & appearance, the rulers decided to enact an entire show to deceive us!
In case you’re having doubts about whether the target is really us, their subjects: The word for “evil” also puns with רעי rˁy which means “subjects”! So the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil also puns with a “scheme of knowingly impressing the subjects”.
(The evil eye uses the word for evil in a similar pun.)
Hebrew, Aramaic ṭbˁ = impress, impression, impressed shape
Hebrew rˀ = see, appearance, show
ראה rˀh : to see; he saw; he looked at, beheld; he perceived — Hebrew (Klein)
ראי rˀy : seeing, sight; appearance, figure — Hebrew (Klein)
ראי rˀy : appearance, aspect — Hebrew (Klein)
ראוה rˀwh : sight, exhibition — Hebrew (Klein)
הראיה hrˀyh : showing — Hebrew (Klein)
ראי rˀy : mirror — Hebrew (Klein)
Hebrew, Arabic rˁ = flock, subjects
The pomegranate as “deceit”
The pomegranate is not found in the Biblical story, but pomegranate trees are often used in later works to depict the Tree of Knowledge.
It puns with “deceit”. Figures.
Aramaic rmn = pomegranate, deception
The serpent as “deceit”
The serpent also puns with “deceit”, though not as well as the pomegranate.
Unknown to most, the name Eve is also a word for snake.
There may be yet more puns in the serpent character.