Eating of the tree of knowledge represents using our own logic and reason to try to figure out and understand the Lord, something which is beyond us and which, ultimately, we have to simply accept. This was forbidden to the people at this stage of the Most Ancient Church because the Lord knew that if they did, they would lose their innocent acceptance of the Lord's love and leading, and would question it instead. This is represented by the idea that they would "die."

(सन्दर्भ: Arcana Coelestia 198, 200, 201, 202, 203)

198. Verses 2-3 And the woman said to the serpent, Of the fruit from the tree of the garden we are to eat; but of the fruit from the tree which is in the middle of the garden God has said, You shall not eat of it nor touch it, or else you will die. 'The fruit from the tree of the garden' is the good and truth revealed to them from the Most Ancient Church. 'The fruit from the tree which was in the middle of the garden, of which they were not to eat' is the good and truth of faith, which they were forbidden to learn from themselves. 'Not to touch it' means that they were forbidden to think about the good and truth of faith from themselves, that is, from sensory perception and factual knowledge. 'Or else they would die' means that faith, that is, all wisdom and intelligence, would in this way perish.