Genesis 1:26–27 (KJV):
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
Being created in the image of God bestowed wisdom and intelligence.
Genesis 3:4–5 (KJV):
“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
Their eyes were “opened” to their own nakedness and the need to hide—the awareness of sin and its consequences—not to superior wisdom or godlike status. They hid from God (Genesis 3:8–10). The outcome was curse, toil, pain, and expulsion from the garden (Genesis 3:16–24), the opposite of the serpent’s claim that they would not die and would become as gods.
Proverbs 1:7 (KJV):
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
Proverbs 9:10 (KJV):
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.”
