die?

At our last Mid-Week Session a question was asked that I had never considered. “When God warned Adam ‘not to eat from the tree of knowledge or he would die’ how would Adam have known what death is?” I thought, “Wow, that’s a good question!” I told the group that I would blog about it, so here it is.

It is interesting to note that in the Garden of Eden God tells Adam about the Tree of Life. He never prohibits him from eating of that tree. We know that the tree did give life to the one who ate it, because when Adam and Eve sin God feels it necessary to guard the Tree of Life. If we ask “How would Adam have known about death?” Then we must ask, “How did Adam understand life?”

When Adam was created I like to think that he poked around the garden and like my kids pointed and said, “What’s that?” God, the Creator would stand over him and say, “That is a banana. You should try it.” Then Adam would point and say, “What’s that?” And God would smile, put his hand on his shoulder, bend down to see what he is pointing at and say, “Oh, do you like that?!? It’s called a flower … a rose, doesn’t it smell good?”

Adam had to learn some things. My guess is he had some sort of knowledge when he was created, but he learned like the rest of us. Genesis 1 and 2 do not give us all the details of Adam’s time in the garden before or after Eve. We do know that he hung out with God, and we do know that he understood consequences of disobeying God. My assumption, based on others is that God taught him these things.

Some assume that Adam may have seen dead animals and understood it that way. They argue that if Adam was to live forever why was there the need for the tree of life? While it is not popular to think about animals dying before the fall, and roses having thorns before the fall many believe this may be the case. They ask questions like, “Did the lion just grow huge flesh tearing teeth after the fall?” About this there is much debate … but we can presume that Adam was given by God an understanding of death.

The immediate consequence of his sin was separation from God. Perhaps this was his understanding of death. Whatever the case, we know that God spoke to him in these words. Most agree that if God used these words then Adam had some understanding of it. How? We may never know, but we do know that we serve a God who communes with his people,