וּמִפְּרִ֣י הָעֵץ֮ אֲשֶׁ֣ר בְּתוֹךְ־הַגָּן֒ אָמַ֣ר אֱלֹהִ֗ים לֹ֤א תֹֽאכְלוּ֙ מִמֶּ֔נּוּ וְלֹ֥א תִגְּע֖וּ בּ֑וֹ פֶּן־תְּמֻתֽוּן׃
mais quant au fruit de l’arbre qui est au milieu du jardin, Dieu a dit: Vous n’en mangerez pas, vous n’y toucherez point, sous peine de mourir."
The Midrash of Philo
Why, when it was commanded them to avoid eating of one plant alone, the woman made also a further addition to this injunction, saying, "He said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it?" (Genesis 3:3).
On Dreams
§ 70. Wendland by giving the reference to Gen. 2:9 implies that the twofold tree combines the tree of life with the tree of knowledge. It is more probable, I think, that the latter only is meant, twofold because it is the knowledge of good and evil. The reference is certainly also to Gen. 3:3, where we have οὐ μὴ ἄψησθε αὐτῆς, thus linking up the story of the tree with the prohibition against “taking hold of the pair.” While in De Op. 154 Philo interprets the knowledge of good and evil as φρόνησις, i.e. the power to distinguish the two and choose the good, in Leg. All. i. 101 f. the tree is the cause of good and evil, abstinence from which is abstinence from evil. Cf. also ibid. 61. The thought comes out most clearly in Quaestiones Gen. i. 15, where speaking of the tree he says that when good and evil are mingled together, the combination contains the beginning of death (“ubi vero bonum et malum commixta sint, principium habent mixturae mortis”).