Reliability of the creation account

[robvalue]

He was clearly testing them to see if they would obey him, with death as a deterrent. And he was lying. Saying it's OK because it was 900 years later is weak.

The name of a tree does not usually contain information about what happens to you when you eat it's fruit. Expecting Adam to know it would actually give you knowledge is a bit of a stretch, especially as God was trying to stop them by threatening death so didn't want him to know this. At best he was implying you get knowledge but die.

And not knowing what good and evil are, he had no idea what that even meant.

God was not being up front. He was taking advantage of helpless people for his own amusement.