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From: jeffo@houxq.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Tough question about Adam + Eve
Message-ID: <404@houxq.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 4-Aug-83 09:59:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: houxq.404
Posted: Thu Aug  4 09:59:18 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 4-Aug-83 16:44:53 EDT
References: <692@hou5e.UUCP>
Organization: American Bell, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 48

The verses you refer to are:

    "but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of
     it: for on the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
                               (Genesis Chapter 2, Verse 17)

    "And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die."
                               (Genesis Chapter 3, Verse 4)

In response to your question, a number of answers have been offered by 
Jewish scholars through the ages:

    (1) Adam was created immortal; his sin caused him to become mortal.
        Thus, "you shall surely die" is understood as "you shall become
        mortal (subject to death)."  This approach is offered by both
        Nachmanides (a.k.a. Ramban - Rabbi Moses ben Nachman - 12th Century
        Spain) and Chizkuni (Rabbi Hezekiah ben Manoach - 13th Century
        France).

    (2) Adam was created as a mortal; his sin caused him to die an early,
        though not immediate, death.  Thus "you shall surely die" means
        "you shall become liable under the death penalty (and die an early
        death)."  This approach is offered by Rabbi Sa'adia Gaon (9th 
        Century Egypt) and Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi - 12th Century France).

    (3) A novel approach is offered by a more recent scholar, Rabbi Samson
        Raphael Hirsch (18th Century Germany):
 
            "But it is possible that the decree '[you] must die' was
             actually carried out immediately.  For we do find elsewhere
             that banishment from home takes place of, and is imposed in
             lieu of the death penalty, as for instance in the case of
             Cain, and with unpremeditated manslaughter.  Banishment is
             death on a reduced scale.  Death itself is not a termination
             of existence, but only a termination of existence here.  And
             so banishment from Paradise may have been death in a milder
             form.  For we can form no conception of what life in [the 
             Garden of Eden] is really like.  Between that and ordinary 
             life out in the world there may be such a break, such a gulf,
             that the transition from one to the other may not have been
             dissimilar to our departure from this world to the next world."



                                         Jeffrey Geizhals
                                         American Bell Inc.
                                         (AT&T Information Systems)
                                         (201) 834-4673