Is God really the Villain of the Old Testament or has He been wrongly accused? If He has been wrongly accused, who is Responsible for the False Accusation?

Part 5

If Gen.3:22 as read in the KJV, And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil is rendered correctly it means God is agreeing with the serpents lie. It would also mean that sin makes us more like

God. That is truly absurd, we know neither of these is true. God can’t lie and sin doesn’t make us more like Him.

Gen. 3:22, understood correctly is the key to unlocking what actually happened when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of good and evil.

And Jehovah God saith, `Lo, the man (was) as one of Us, as to the knowledge of good and evil…. (Young’s Literal translation)

The KJV’s rendering of this verse is a complete contradiction of the literal Hebrew translation The KJV states mankind became more like God after sin (knowing both good AND evil by experience). The original Hebrew says the opposite. The serpent is the one that said God was acquainted with evil by experience and the serpent is a liar! We were the ones that became acquainted with evil, God doesn’t have anything to do with evil except over come it with good (Rom 12:21).

The Samaritan text, the Samaritan version, the Syriac, and the Septuagint, all have this same tense. These indicate that there is an omission of some words which should be supplied.

“And the Lord God said, the man who was like one of us in purity and wisdom, is now fallen and robbed of his excellence; he has added to the knowledge of the good, by his transgression the knowledge of the evil;” Adam Clarke’s Commentary.

So it was NOT God that was acquainted with evil, it WAS man. This was the original lie (God was acquainted with evil by experience) and the sad thing is this lie has followed us in some of the most respected Bible translations including the KJV! This conclusion is also proved true by God showing up after they had sinned.

And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. (Gen 3:8)
Adam and Eve hid from God because they were afraid. If they had not swallowed the lie of Satan and still believed there was no evil in God there would be no reason to hide, even God’s correction would be welcome. They were infected with evil but even worse than that is they believed they were more like God than before they sinned. From that day to this, mankind began projecting “Satan’s” and “their” evil unto God.

And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. (Gen. 3:9-10)

Prior to believing the lie there was no reason to fear God. He had only been good to them? There is nothing to fear in perfect love. We have heard it preached that they were afraid and hid because of guilt and shame. Sure, guilt and shame played a part in this, but these were just symptoms of a much greater disease, the dis-ease of believing that God was acquainted with evil. In other words God is good, but…

Part 6 to follow