It wasn't the Tree of Knowledge. It was the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" To answer your question, I don't know. Most modern theologians (non-fundamentalist) 😔consider the story of Adam and Eve to be a fable because it makes little logical sense.

Read Romans 8 and Ephesians 1. John 17:24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

I don't think He "knew" it was going to happen. If such was the case, it would defeat the notion of "free will". He knew * WHEN * it happened though. According to the Scriptures, God knows how many hairs a person has on his head - so it wouldn't be a trick to know if a piece of fruit was missing from a tree.

So the trees were, the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which is the tree of Death. Why the knowledge of good and evil is death, is because it's duality, a nature separate from God's will. So, what God was doing, was offering man a choice to live by his will, or his own, that is the only way for man to be free, and of course God made man in his own image, or nature so able to choose. Man did know the concept of death, because when God says you will "surely" die, "surely" is a word that means DEAD DEAD, no more. God would know what would happen for he has or IS all knowledge, but the choice would still be mans, take for example if you'd watched a movie, you'd know how it ends, but your friend who hasn't watched the movie, wouldn't; but regardless of this, it doesn't change the ending, that's the best way I can explain it. And again this is regarding time, we experience time differently to God, for God is eternal, whereas we in our current state of mind experience time not only as a measure of change, but also we have the concept of past and future especially in our internal thinking. Where as God IS "I AM." So when man ate from the tree, by being tempted and beguiled by the serpent or "shining/whispering" one, and so choosing Satan or his own will as fed by the ego "You will be like God," he fell into separateness from God and so death and time. This is when shame or being exposed takes over them, they know they are naked, this isn't just outside but also inside. Hence, why Jesus Christ, is called the mystery hidden before the world, because Christ is the tree of life, the answer to the fall, he gives life, he is the Vine that connects us back to the Father, so that we can return and be reunited with the Father, and then again, God will BE all, and IN all, hence we shall experience the eternal "I AM," God's will.

Yeah this makes me wonder too

Assuming the story is intended to be factual: He put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden because he knew what was going to happen and he intended for that to happen. *** Assuming that the story is allegorical: it explains why humans are sinful and why there are eternal consequences for humans, and it also explains such things as death, male dominance in society (most societies), the need to work for a living, etc. AS divinely-mandated things.

It needed to happen in order for them to know how to procreate and fulfill the commandment in Genesis 1:27–28 Old Testament 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."