The purpose of this study will be to examine the specific fulfillment of the consequences contained in the warning against eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Before we look at that fulfillment, it will be beneficial to note the specifics of the promise.
THE PROMISE OF DEATH
The promise seems to be quite clear as God tells Adam and Eve, “in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). The Hebrew text literally says, “dying, you will die” (tWmT' tAm), though we should understand this, not as speaking of two deaths, but as a Hebraic figure of speech indicating the certainty of that which is promised. The translators of the NAS capture this idea when they render it, “You will surely die.”
Not only is the certainty of death given in this prophecy, but the time element in the prophecy is quite specific. This certain death would take place “in the day that you eat from it.” It should be noted that the term “day” had been previously defined in Genesis 1 as that which encompassed evening and morning. Though there have been a number of differing interpretations of the true meaning of the six days of creation, few have tried to attach such explanations to Genesis 2:17. Indeed, the serpent echoes this reference to the day by making the claim that “God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). Thus we have a contrast between what God says will happen on the day that man eats versus what the serpent says will happen on the day in which man eats. Leupold takes this a step further to say that “the thought actually to be expressed is the instantaneous occurrence of the penalty threatened” (1975:128).
What would ta...
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...played out in the rest of the Old Testament
• The fulfillment of that promise culminated in the cross.
4. Conclusion.
The promise of death looked to an expectation of immediate fulfillment; it was to take place “on the day you eat.” When the Lord appears on the scene in the garden after Sadam and Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit, the reader expects Him to carry out this promised sentence of death. Instead, He gives a promise that, in its final and complete form, looks to that sentence of death being meted out to the promised seed of the woman. We read that his heel would be bruised, even as he carried out his ultimate victory over the serpent. Though this would not take place for many thousands of years, there did take place on that very day a substitutionary death that served as both a type and a promise of the ultimate sacrifice that was to come.
When wisdom is mixed with disobedience it opens the door for evil to abound. Although Eve was the first to take of the fruit and Adam the second, both shared responsibility in the transgression as Arnold describes it. (62;67,
The problem of evil is a difficult objection to contend with for theists. Indeed, major crises of faith can occur after observing or experiencing the wide variety and depths of suffering in the world. It also stands that these “evils” of suffering call into question the existence of an omnibenevolent and omnipotent God of the Judeo-Christian tradition. The “greater good defense” tries to account for some of the issues presented, but still has flaws of its own.
The problem of evil has been categorized variously, but the major categorizations of evil entail the physical evil on the one hand, and the moral evil, on the other hand. Physical evil has been defined as the occurrence of a physical suffering and destruction that is caused by the operation of natural laws, with no involvement of the human intention in the occurrence of such events (Kremer and Latzer, 89). On the other hand, moral evil has been defined as the occurrence of events that violates the natural laws, for which humans are responsible (Kremer and Latzer, 89). In this respect, while in the physical evil there is no participation of humans, the moral evil is contributed by the involvement of the personal will and intellect in doing what naturally should not be done, or what is simply considered morally wrong.
He was, in fact, on the verge of doing just that. As Gilgamesh was taking a bath in a well on his way home to Uruk, all his hard work to become immortal was wasted. “It rose out of the water and snatched it away”(Gilgamesh 27). The “it” refers to the serpent that was in the well who snatched the sweet flower, the flower that gives you immortality. If the serpent had not have snatched that flower, Gilgamesh would be immortal. In Genesis, the serpent makes Adam and Eve not be immortal as well, but in an opposite way as Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh loses nothing that he had before his quest, but Adam and Eve lose their immortality. Gilgamesh starts off without immortality, and has to eat the flower to become immortal. Adam and Eve are already immortal, and God tells them not to eat the fruit from one of the trees, but ate it, making Gilgamesh’s and Adam and Eve’s situations opposites. However, we can link these two situations by the serpent. In Genesis, Adam and Eve are told by God that they could eat from any tree except the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and that if you do, you will die. When the serpent hears that God had said this, he tries to trick Eve into eating from the tree. “‘Ye shall not surely die:’ ‘For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil’” (Genesis 42). The serpent says that God even knows that if you eat the fruit off of this tree, you will not die, you will be like God and know good from evil. So, Eve is tricked into eating the fruit and shares it with her husband. Since they do this, they will die, and lose their immortality because of the
In his pursuit, the king calls forth an older man and the man’s older consanguinity generations. The eldest of the line provides a sufficient explanation of the grin’s origins; however, one becomes inquisitive regarding the declining health of the three generations. The youngest contains a “bent” stature as he has impairments in most physiological prospects, and fascinatingly enough, the eldest sustains the physiological health expected of a young gentleman. Ultimately, health and fruitful plantation are related to appeasing God as disrupting spiritual equilibrium brings chaos and famine. Appeasing gods to seek prosperity is prominent in the Kalanga culture in The Poisonwood Bible. As the Price family begins to assimilate into the surrounding culture of the inhabitants, a recurrent motif is a connection between Earth’s elements and approval by the gods. Consequently, when society disturbs the gods, civilization begins to dismantle from natural disasters like a horrific ant
In his biblical commentary, Thompson explains that “to be out of tune or out of step” with the purpose (of serving and obeying God) can be described as death. In the story of creation (Genesis), everything in the Garden of Eden has been created for harmonious relationship because God is “concerned for harmonious balance” and His “divine presence sustains life in all its week-to-week rhythms.” Birch emphasizes that God’s intention in creation is for everyone to experience His intended wholeness, otherwise known as shalom. Alongside with it is a story of broken creation, wherein “sin is the word used to describe how shalom (wholeness) gets broken.” In the Old Testament, spiritual death is also considered to be a consequence of sin, i.e. “for shalom to be broken and for humans to be denied wholeness is to experience death
The thesis of this paper is that, setting aside the question of moral offense that has disturbed commentators from Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason) to William Empson (Milton's God), agape to neighbor makes sense only under monotheistic or specifically Christian assumptions, and therefore, the old saw, "Christianity may not be factually true, but it has a sublime ethical teaching", is problematical.
In these two interpretations, is highlighted the evil part of the apple but this fruits are interpreted in the norse mythology as a symbol of youth, a gift to the gods from the goddess Iduna. When the trickster god Lake allowed Iduna to be carried off to the realm of giants, the gods grew old and gray. They forced Lake to recapture Iduna from the giants. We can observe that the apple has many interpretations in different stories, fairy tales, myths or legends and are considered fruits with divine power. The mythological or ideological significance of a message pertains to systems of representation that often appear neutral and objectivated but which legitimate and sustain the power structure or a particular set of cultural values ( Curran, 1976: 9).
While many people today seem to be scared to die, and make great strides to avoid an early death, this is not a new human concern. In fact, Dr. Peter J. Brand did some extensive research on how people in Ancient Mesopotamia viewed death and the afterlife. He believes death was extremely scary to people of this region. In his article titled: Dying: Death and the Afterlife, Brand states, “Like all human cultures, the people of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia were greatly troubled by death.” (Brand pg. 1) Apparently, it death was even more dreadful in the minds of the Mesopotamians. “Mesopotamian views of death were more pessimistic, resulting in less elaborate preparations for death.” (Brand pg.1) On the contrary, it seems that there would have been a lot of preparation involved, since the journey to the underworld alone was a perilous feat. This tells us that there was nothing glorified about death, and nothing exciting about traveling to the underworld. However, it reveals that there was a lot of confusion surrounding death, and confusion how to deal with it. Dr. Brand goes on to talk about how the underworld was a ...
In the Protestant view, in which humans were viewed as innately evil, soiled by original sin, children were also considered moral agents, and therefore in need of shaping. Given this idea, it was reasonable to stifle children's natural impulses by physically punishing those impulses, to set them in...
Gilgamesh goes on to seek eternal life. Death had never been a topic he had to deal with. Jacobsen explains, “death, fear of death, has become an ob...
she did eat it; and she gave it unto her husband..." (Genesis 3.6). Eve, out of
..., then they lanced his flesh with knives; after that they stoned him with stones, then pricked him with their swords; and last of all they burned him to ashes at the stake" (86). Faithful's death and Jesus's death on the cross are both horrific ways to die.
God reveals how all creatures are sinful and treat Him unkindly. God is disappointed that the world is obsessed with riches and pays little attention to the spiritual things of real worth. He realizes that people have forgotten that His Son, Jesus, was crucified to give them eternal life. God decides to make all people accountable for their sins and calls for Death to come and receive his instructions. God tells Death to find Everyman and give him the message that he must make his final journey and give an account of his life deeds. Death promises God that he will obey His instructions (Benet 684-685).