Thou shalt surely die

[Clair B]

"In the day you eat of it you shall die" (Gen 2:16-17). 

The serpent challenges the truthfulness of this statement, and Adam and Eve die much later.  Common explanations for God's seemingly inconstant statement are:

• Day may mean time
• Cruel conditions out of the garden may be like death
• You shall not attain the measure of life originally allotted to you (1000 years)
• You deserve death, which will be fulfilled in due time
• This is an exaggerated statement to motivate Adam from further sinning
• Adam was to die until he repented
• You are now immortal, but shall become mortal -- a type of death
• Separation from God in the garden comprises a type of spiritual death
  

Cassuto's explanation is that Adam will not be allowed to eat from the tree of life, which would have prevented him from ever dieing.  After choosing the fruit of knowledge, he was not allowed to eat of the tree of life, ensuring he would eventually die.

[Walter Nicholes]

I have pondered this.

Adam was created at the end of the 6 day creation, and then (ostensibly) lived with Eve in the garden of Eden during God's day of rest - 1000 years according to some.

Then, the day of rest being over, Lucifer came to tempt Adam and he partook of the fruit.  Until that point temporal existence had not started, so things were measured by the standard of either 1000 years to the day, or a "time" as you mentioned.  In either case the prediction was proven true, because if it was for a "time" Adam did indeed depart mortality in a "time" and if it was 1000 years, Adam did, indeed die within a 1000 year period relating to the orbit of the earth around this sun.

What I find even more interesting to contemplate is that Adam could have learned an awful lot during 1000 years in Eden, provided that he wasn't a total moron.  As I look as what man has learned in the last 200 years, and give Adam 1000 years, he could have come out of Eden pretty well informed.  Not quite the picture of a primitive that is usually passed to the casual observer.

Walt