Was Adam formed mortal
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Does Genesis 3:22 indicate that Adam was already subject to death before he sinned? Asked 2 years, 5 months ago Active yesterday Viewed 835 times 1
“but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”” Genesis 2:17
Was Adam not subject to death prior to eating of this fruit? Something along the lines of
“In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.” Revelation 9:6
Or was Adam neither mortal nor immortal until Adam ate of one or the other fruit?
In light of the fact that the garden had a tree of life, which would grant one who ate of its fruits immortality, was Adam mortal prior? After all what was its purpose in the event that Adam was immortal? (Did it have other healing properties? Knowledge of life, stating life? It wasn’t there should Adam fall because God cut Adam off from its access.)
“And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Genesis 2:9
(I’ve included this verse because I do not accept that this tree was Jesus. It was a tree.)
It’s fruit granted eternal life
“Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—” Genesis 3:22
I can think of several scenarios
a) no Adam was not created immortal
b) yes Adam was created immortal
b1) Upon eating of the fruit Adam loses his immortality
c) Adam was neither mortal, nor immortal, he was in a state of “limbo”
I’m not seeking opinions, I’m especially seeking a well formulated argument from Scripture, if one exists at all to the question, “Was Adam created mortal?”
From Sensus plenior
Beginning with Paul's clear statement on the matter; Adam was not subject to death until he sinned. [1]
Paul's statement on the matter is ignored either from ignorance or malice. If by malice, then the question is intended to cast doubt on the Word of God rather than obtain information about it's integrity. If it is from ignorance, then Paul's answer should suffice.
What can we discern from the apparent contradiction that Adam apparently had to eat to live, and was therefore subject to death, and God's warning that he would die the day he ate the fruit? Apparent contradictions are intended to call our attention to an important doctrine concerning the invisible God who is made known through the word, works, life, death, and indwelling Spirit or the Word of God.
The 'mystery hidden from the beginning' [2] concerns Christ [3]
As a mystery, it is hidden in the literal-historical record where the record of the actual history is also a prophetic riddle concerning Christ.
The first part of the riddle to solve is this: How did seven days happen in one day? [4] Part of the mystery cannot be ignored if understanding of the full mystery is to be had.
In order to have seven days in one one or more of the following must be true:
1. The day יום must be a figurative day.
2. 'Day' is literal but means something other than a 24 hour day.
3. The seven days occurred outside of time.
Figurative day
Using notarikon (an early Hebrew hermeneutic), the word 'day' yom יום means 'Gods creation י finished by the Son ם for the intention of clarifying ו. In fact, each day is a prophetic riddle concerning Christ, which is a wonderful topic for another question.
Literal Day
On day 4 God made the lights in the firmament. A typical scoffer claim is that the Bible is false because you cannot have light and 'days' without a sun.
However, the word 'lights' מאור means 'from מ light אור'. The lights were formed 'from light'. Light came first. This is supports by modern theories concerning the Big Bang. It is claimed by some that in teh Big bang, there was first an explosion which sent energy in a wave from a infinitesimally small beginning point. First the was energy (light). [5] Then as the energy 'cooled from the expansion', it condensed and coalesced into matter. Hence the sun was formed 'from light'.
In this scenario, theorists have a difficulty explaining the coalescing, some claim that the energy must have been pulsing in order to to form pockets of 'mass' here and there. As light travels in waves, the high energy parts of the wave could be interpreted as days, with an abundance of energy (light) and the nights would be the low energy sections of the wave.
Scientific theory corresponds to what the Bible says. And it is scientifically plausible that there were periods of light and dark which God called Day and Night. They were literal days and nights but meant something different from a 24 hour period.
Day outside of time
Since men are finally coming around to understanding God's record of creation with scientific theories, the claim that seven days occurred in one day must also be taken seriously.
What is time? According to Einstein, time is not fixed; it is related to speed. Without getting into detailed speculations, it is sufficient to say that Einstein's theory allows for time to stop in certain frames of reference. Time is an illusion based on your perspective.
In God's framework of existence, there is no time. Since he does not travel through space, space being within him [6], he would observe all the peaks and valleys of the wave of energy created by the Big Bang in the same instant. When attacked by bees, you can feel the simultaneous stings, no matter which part of your body is stung.
God experienced seven days in one day. Creation happened in timelessness. Halos, produced by the radioactive decay of primordial polonium in granite are one such evidence. In order to form, these halos required the granite to cool instantaneously, yet in time, granite cannot cool fast enough.
Enough of days, what of death?
When did time begin? This is answered by the death of Adam.
Adam would die the day he ate the fruit. [7]
Adam did not die for almost 1000 years after he ate the fruit. [8]
This is not a contradiction as the scoffers would have us believe. It is a riddle which informs us about the invisible God. To him a day is like a thousand of our years. [9] Adam died physically within one of God's days.
But he also died almost immediately as he was cast from the garden, from a timelessness, into the illusion of time. What is the evidence?
The garden was 'east of Eden'.[10] 'East' qadam קדם also means 'before'. Eden ayden עדן also means time. The garden was 'before time'. To really make the point that time was a consequence and reminder of the fall, the two letter gate ad עד within 'eden' means 'filthy'. The garden was before 'filthy time'.
The theology
1. Adam died but didn't die. It is a riddle concerning the death and resurrection of Christ.
2. This life (in time) is in an illusion of time, and is but a shadow. [11]
3. The one in Christ who dies, doesn't die. [12]
What of Adam's mortality
Did Adam have to eat in order to live? No. God said he may eat, not that he must eat. [13] Adam was outside of time. The only meaning 'death' could have was that he would be cast into time. The word 'die' muwth מות means 'the promise of the Father מ clarified ו by the revelation being completed with a new life returning to God.
The resurrection of Christ provides the salvation made effectual and complete through our death. [14]
How did we inherit the penalty for Adam's sin?
We were born 'in time'. Death is a reminder of the consequences of sin. But even as life is a shadow, so is death. [15] [16]- ↑ Ro 5:17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) [{by one man’s … : or, by one offence }]
- ↑ Eph 3:9 And to make all [men] see what [is] the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
- ↑ Lu 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
- ↑ Ge 2:4 ¶ These [are] the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
- ↑ Ge 1:3 ¶ And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
- ↑ [[1Ki 8:27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?
- ↑ Ge 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. [{thou shalt surely … : Heb. dying thou shalt die }]
- ↑ Ge 5:5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.
- ↑ 2Pe 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day [is] with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
- ↑ Ge 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
- ↑ Ec 6:12 For who knoweth what [is] good for man in [this] life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun? [{all … : Heb. the number of the days of the life of his vanity }]
- ↑ Joh 11:26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
- ↑ Ge 2:16 ¶ And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: [{thou … : Heb. eating thou shalt eat }]
- ↑ Ro 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? [{the body … : or, this body of death }] Ro 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. ...
- ↑ Job 10:21 Before I go [whence] I shall not return, [even] to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
- ↑ Ps 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou [art] with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
