June 17, 2010

This is an article late in coming.  And it will touch alot more on exacting scripture than I really intend for Lifequill.

In a comment to my Easy Apples post, the writer NFQ asked some questions regarding the creation story, specifically regarding the forbidden fruit and the consequences of eating it.  (You can see that post here )

There are a few things I’d like to address regarding the post, along with the final question asked.

In the post, NFQ states:

“God lies to Adam and Eve and tells them that eating the fruit will cause them to die that day. (We know it’s a lie, because they do eat the fruit and that’s not what happens.)”

But this is untrue, actually.

The problem herein lies in that NFQ is working from an English translation of the Bible.  The phrase is rendered, “And you shall surely die.” This does lend to certain problems in understanding the text.  (For reference, the section of the Bible being discussed is Genesis 2:17; “… but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”)

Two sections need to be considered.  The phrasing “in the day” and “you shall surely die.”  I’m going to start with the second.

If you examine the Hebrew, the wording and verbiage used would come out word for word, “…dying you shall surely die.”

It contains a few things that really matter (grammar specialists take note, everyone else feel free to skip forward a bit).

It contains the imperfect form of the Hebrew verb (you shall die) and the infinite absolute form of the same verb (dying).

What exactly does that mean, you ask?  First and foremost, that there is a strong emphasis on the fact that a kind of death will happen.  But to best grasp it all, one can look for other uses in the Bible.

This same basic phrase is found in Numbers 26:65.  In it, God tells the Israelites that because they refused to trust Him, the adults would die over the course of 40 years.  The phrase, dying you shall surely die, is used specifically.  But it is clear in that context, and from the following events, that God did not mean every adult would die instantly or at once.  (Hence part of the use of 40 years).  But that it could be gradual, still with the same outcome.

What of the second phrase, “in the day…” doesn’t that suggest that it would happen that day?  Well, no.  Again if you look at the Hebrew and how it is used in the Bible it often does not mean a single day.

For instance, the same word that creates this phrase is used to describe the six day period of creation.  Not a single day.  (Genesis 2:4)  It is also used again in Numbers 7:10-84 to describe a twelve day period of sacrifice.  The word itself can either be a specific day, or a number of days, or even more, and is dependent on the context of the text it is contained within to determine the case.

There are multiple ways of interpreting the line in regards to Genesis.  It seems clear that a spiritual death DID happen that day.  Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden; they “hid themselves from God.”  Their once close relationship was now broken.  But where the earlier text suggests that they may have lived eternally before (the part about eating any other tree, actually translates more correctly as everlasting feasting), they were now cursed to toil, experience pain, and eventually die.

There is nothing in the Hebrew text to suggest that the best translation would be, “If you eat the fruit, you will die instantaneously (or even this day).  Just that the death would be a grave one.  (It is emphasized in seriousness, not necessarily in timeliness)

So God was in fact telling the truth.  Eating the forbidden fruit led to both a spiritual, and eventually a physical death.

But there is still another important question from NFQ’s post I feel need be addressed.

In it they ask (and allow me to paraphrase), “Is it fair for God to punish Adam and Eve’s actions, when by the very text admittance, they did not know the difference between right and wrong?”

Yes.  Yes it is.  We as humans, more specifically parents, do exactly that every day.  When we have very young children, they often begin to do something because they do not know any better.  As a parent, we will see their action and warn them to stop.   The child understands what the parent has said, what they wish.  But chooses to do so anyways.  Again, not realizing that what they are doing is ‘wrong’.  Not knowing any better.  Yet afterwards, we still punish them.

Why?  Because even if a child did not realize what they were about to do was wrong, they do know the sound of a parent’s voice.  The intention of their words.  And chose to ignore it.  We punish as much for that as for the wrong.  Adam and Eve did not have the knowledge of right and wrong.  But they did have the knowledge of what God wanted and what He did not.  And they chose their own will anyways.  As with a child, they were punished.  They, and the child, later knew what they did was wrong.  Not just because of the action being wrong, but because of the disobedience.  A child may not yet have understanding of good and bad, right and wrong, but they do have an understanding of listening to a parent.  And we further instill that by holding them to it.

A life without consequences equates in nongrowth.

NFQ specifically asks: “So, the story of Adam and Eve suggests either that the justice of the Judeo-Christian God runs contrary to our most basic notions of what fairness should look like, or (less likely) that the Judeo-Christian God is so arbitrary as to cross the line into antagonism. If you believe in this God and you revere the text of Genesis, please tell me: which one is it?”

The answer actually is the first.  One need not look further than the Bible to see that, as stated in 1 John 1:9.  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

From the beginning man has as a whole done more wrong than right.  More harm than good.  Given free will, we choose destruction more often than not.  It is hard to find a person who is blameless.  (I do not believe one exists on this earth)

From the beginning all men have sooner or later chosen their own path over God’s.  Reveling in our knowledge instead of His.  Man’s justice claims that all crime should be punished.  Yet, as John tells us, God’s justice involves forgiveness.  When is the last time a judge offered a criminal forgiveness?  Yet that is God’s way.

So although NFQ was trying to get at something else, (which I admit I sidestepped entirely with my earlier answer on exactly why punishing Adam and Eve is ok), I still find the answer to the question to be a resounding yes.  What we find just in this world, it seems God would try to avoid for a greater sort of justice.

NFQ also asks: “While we’re at it — why wouldn’t God want his people to know the difference between good and evil? Wouldn’t God want people to be able to choose good over evil, and doesn’t that require being able to distinguish between them? A deity that punishes his people for finding out the difference between right and wrong does not sound very benevolent to me.”

I must simply point out what man has done with his knowledge of evil.  God has knowledge of good and evil.  Yet He is pure, and does only good.  Man on the other hand is not the same.  Capable of both good and evil, man chooses evil.  And though yes it can be said that not all men are “EVIL” in the large truly horrid sense of the world.  No man is purely good either.  And drawing a line becomes a task so large that the rolling stone of “what isn’t too evil?” will flatten even the largest city.

Without the knowledge of good and evil, man could not do evil.  But God didn’t strip that knowledge from us.  He forbade it, yes.  But He didn’t stop us from attaining it when we made the choice.  The crux of free will.