Page 42 - ADAM IN GENESIS

emphatic point that Adam surely will eat of any tree. Also, it makes little sense in verse
17 to say that Adam will freely die if he eats of the forbidden tree.

The controversial aspect of this grammatical construct here is, what is the effect on the
verb to die in verse 17? Most YEC commentators will argue this construct can be used
another way. The effect would be that the verse could suggest that upon disobeying
Adam would begin a process of death. They say that the verse literally should be
translated dying, you shall die, suggesting an ongoing process initiated on the day that he
sinned. Why? Because the word yom (day) is used in verse 17 and we know that Adam
did not physically die the day he ate the fruit. He lived another 900 or so years. Since
they insist on a literal 24-hour interpretation of yom in chapter 1, they see no reason for
the difference here and any different meaning for the word may threaten the meaning in
the first chapter. The result, however, is a faulty translation and interpretation of the
infinitive absolute. Remember yom can mean an indefinite period of time. That
interpretation fits well with verse 17. In this case yom roughly equals 900 years. The
author strictly wanted to get across the certainty of the death. Adam would surely die in
the day he disobeyed and ate the fruit.
The infinitive absolute is used 79 times in the OT. Never should it be translated in the
manner the YEC commentators suggest above. I offer a few reasons here; 1) dying is a
participle and there are no participles in this construct, it is an infinitive (to die); 2) By
this reasoning verse 16 could be translated eating, you shall eat suggesting a gradual
process of eating fruit and this is clearly nonsense; 3) in 1Kings 2:37 Solomon issues a
similar warning to Shimei saying on the dayyou shall surely die and when Shimei
disobeyed it was not until 3 years later that Solomon had him killed. The use of the
construct here was for Shimei to know for certain that he would surely die. His death was
instant, it did not initiate when he disobeyed and gradually take place over three years.
For Shimei, yom equaled three years. Therefore since the biblical and logical evidence
point against interpreting this with the participle dying, you shall die, we should interpret
it the same as the others by concluding that it is to add emphasis and certainty that the
punishment will surely happen. And it did happen in the same yom as the sin.
With that said it may be helpful in clarifying exactly what death would occur if Adam
should disobey. The word muth almost always speaks of a physical death. Some argue
that it is strictly physical, some say it is only a spiritual death (i.e. one that needs healing
in the eventual resurrection of Christ) and still others say it is a combination. The Bible is
clear that we are separated from God by our sin and are thus spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1-5),
but the context and the eventual curse given upon his disobedience in Gen. 3:19 suggest
that it is at least primarily physical in nature. This is also supported in the NT (Rom.
5:12; 6:23; 8:10). This being so, one could justifiably argue that it would be no warning
to Adam at all to tell him he would physically die, if there was no death around him. In
other words Adam must have witnessed animal death if he were to truly understand God's
command and warning in verses 16-17. As we have seen before, the only reason given for
the no animal death before the Fall stance is not a sound biblical one. It comes from the
faulty global-extent view of the words very good in Genesis 1:31. No verse in the Bible
speaks of animal death being a result of Adam's sin.