How is the death of Adam to be explained?

Question

What is the proper reconciliation of Genesis 2:17 with the passages of the Scripture (including Genesis 5:3-5) which chronicle the fact that Adam was active, even siring sons and daughters, subsequent to his expulsion from the Garden?  In consideration of Genesis 2:7 and Genesis 3:17-19, can the death prescribed by Genesis 2:17 be anything other than literal, physical death leading to decomposition (the return to dust)?

Answer 1

Adam was the first human with an "Immortal Soul" that was breathed into him from God.   The moment Adam sinned, his soul was separated from God; hence, he died an "immortal death".  All descendants of Adam were born with the same soul condition as Adam (dead).   Only reconciliation by Jesus can a soul be reborn.  We are either in "immortal death" or "everlasting life".    Immortal death of the soul was the meaning of the penalty of death for Adam's sin.

Comments

GregorySon -

(1) What part of the term "immortal" and the concept of Immortality do you not understand?  By definition, that which is immortal cannot die.  The term "immortal death" which you use is an oxymoron; it makes no sense.

(2) Adam did not POSSESS a soul; rather, Adam WAS a soul.  The English term "soul," like the corresponding Greek term PSUCHE, means "being" or "entity" or "creature."  But the being or creature is not a "LIVING soul" until it is animated by impartation of the Spirit of Life.  The the Spirit of Life simply animates the individual; it does not correspond to the concept of the Immortal Soul.

(3) That which the Lord God breathed into the nostrils of Adam was not an "Immortal Soul"; rather, it was the "Spirit of Life" -- a spirit which the Lord imparts in order to animate creatures of the Natural Realm.  In the progeny of Adam, the animating spirit is imparted upon the first inhale after birth; upon death, it returns to the Lord, Ecclesiastes 12:7.  Inasmuch as the Greek term PNEUMA is used for wind or breath as well as for spirit, the Spirit of Life sometimes is termed the Breath of Life.

(4) In a figurative sense, separation may be construed as death.  But separation is NOT the death of which the Lord warned in Genesis 2:17.  The immediate context makes clear the fact that the death in view is physical death, which ultimately results in utter annihilation: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return," Genesis 3:19.

(5) If you take the trouble to think about it, you should be able to see that, by his argument that the Wicked and the Unbeliever are tortured for evermore in Hell, the Protestant is asserting that the Wicked and the Unbeliever have "everlasting life"; after all, it is impossible to inflict torment upon the dead.  Concerning the state of death, Job observes: "There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.  There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.  The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master," Job 3:17-19.  Thus, the concept of Everlasting Torture demands the concept of the Immortal Soul.  But, both the concept of the Immortal Soul and the concept of Everlasting Torture are foreign to the Scripture; they are pipe dreams which exist only in the imagination of the Protestant and the Talmudic Jew.

(6) If that which you term "death of the Soul" truly was the penalty of which the Lord warned Adam in Genesis 2:17, then the concern of the Lord regarding the fruit of the Tree of Life would make no sense: "And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.  So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life," Genesis 3:22-24.

(7) You argue on the basis of theology; but the Christian Faith is not based on theology.  Rather, the Christian Faith is based upon the Scripture.  That which you term "Soul Death" is an invention of the Protestant; it is a concept which is foreign to the Scripture.  Unless and until you can argue from the Scripture, citing book, chapter, and verse, your claims are nothing more than baseless speculation.  Moreover, they are directly contradicted by the plain teaching of the Scripture.

RLH
25 February A.D. 2020

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Matthew 25:46  And these shall go away into everlasting punishment [everlasting death in Hell]: but the righteous into life eternal

Daniel 12:2  And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt [Everlasting death in Hell].

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GregorySon -

(1) The Scripture, speaking of condemnation, uses the qualifier "everlasting" to indicate that the sentence is irreversible, there being no possibility of reprieve.  That is the reason Christ Jesus uses Gehenna as a portrayal of judgment.  Gehenna (Greek, GEENA, which is the name of the Valley of the Sons of Hinnon) is the municipal dump.  Gehenna portrays destruction which is UTTER: that which the maggots (KJV "worms") do not devour, the flames reduce to ash.  The destruction portrayed by Gehenna also is SURE: in Gehenna maggots always are to be found, never wanting, and in Gehenna fires are kept burning, the flames never being quenched or extinguished.  The fate of the Unbeliever and that of the Wicked is annihilation.  To assert or teach that the Lord God practices torture is to blaspheme the name of the Lord.

On what basis do you assert that "everlasting punishment" and "shame and everlasting contempt" mean "everlasting death in Hell"?  Where in the Scripture do you find the concept of "everlasting death in Hell"?  Are you aware that, in the King James Version, the word "hell" sometimes translates HADES, which means the Grave, and sometimes translates GEENNA?  Apart from the Resurrection, death and subsequent decomposition in the Grave indeed is everlasting, but the imaginary "Hell" of which you speak is not the Grave.

(2) In Daniel 12:1-3, those who "sleep in the dust of the earth" are NOT the dead.  The phrase, which is figurative, describes those who are living in obscurity, as if they were dead; it appears to have in view the descendants of the disenfranchised and scattered tribes of Israel which lost covenantal relationship circa 721 B.C.  They are the descendants of the so-called "Lost Ten Tribes"; in the Greek these descendants of the line Abraham-Isaac-Jacob are termed ETHNOS, which means "tribes," "nations," or "peoples."  Regrettably, in the King James Version and most other English translations, ETHNOS seldom is translated, following the bizarre precedent set by William Tyndale.  Rather, ETHNOS generally is rendered "Gentile."

This passage in the Prophecy of Daniel has in view the present epoch, which began when the Apostles went out as messengers (Greek, AGGELOS, Matthew 24:31, Mark 13:27) proclaiming and teaching the Gospel of the Kingdom.  Through their embrace of the Gospel, the Elect (Israelites of all thirteen tribes, scattered throughout the Earth) are gathered, thus fulfilling the prophecies of the regathering of Israel.  Brought into covenantal relationship under the New Covenant, these Elect constitute the "Israel of God," Galatians 6:16.

RLH
26 February A.D. 2020

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Matthew 10:28  And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell.

Matthew 25:46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.  

In Daniel 12:2 The profit is saying those who sleep in the soil of the ground ( אַדְמַת עָפָר).   The Hebrew word for soil in this verse is the same word used 10 times in other verses to refer specifically to the soil of the land.  Daniel is referring to the raising of the souls of those who physically died, for judgment of the end times. (see verse 4).  There is no implied 'living in obscurity' meaning, unless you change scripture to fit your own narrative.

Whether you consider the living soul of Adam to be his whole being, or a separate entity from his physical body is immaterial.  Adam was the first human (the only human) that God breathed into his nostrils "the breath of life".  God's breath is immortal.  The physical body can be killed and it will no longer exist (after decay), but the soul is immortal, everlasting.  It can be in everlasting life or everlasting death.   Everlasting death is defined as everlasting separation from God and punishment.   That death is the punishment for unforgiven sin.  Death entered by sin, and only Christ is the answer.

Every descendant of Adam acquired a "dead soul".  

Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

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GregorySon -

Citations by Jesus and the Apostles establish the Septuagint as the sole authoritative Canon of Scripture; the Ancient Hebrew Canon did not survive the A.D. 70 destruction of Jerusalem.  The Masoretic Hebrew Text from which you quote is a forgery, which first appeared in the Fifteenth Century A.D.; it is a worthless counterfeit.  

The Pharisees who opposed Jesus set aside the Scripture in order to obey their tradition, the so-called "Tradition of the Elders," which today continues in the form of the Babylonian Talmud.  The Protestant has a similar body of tradition, in the Westminster Confession and related documents.  Much of the tradition of the Protestant is derived from the Tradition of the Talmudic Jew.  Your arguments and assertions gainsay the Scripture, and are based upon a combination of Protestant tradition and your own confused reasoning.

Because you have refused correction, I must terminate this conversation with you, in obedience to the Scripture, which commands: "Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.  Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit," Proverbs 26:4-5.

RLH
26 February A.D. 2020

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Wow, that was an interesting way to end a discussion....  Change the subject and imply that I am a fool....

I do study the English translation of the Septuagint and I find the verses I quoted from both Daniel and Genesis to be the same as the Hebrew translations.   That makes sense because the Septuagint was originally copied from an earlier Hebrew scripture.   Daniel speaks of those who were raised from their sleep in the dust of the ground, at the end times; some to everlasting punishment and some to everlasting life.   Sorry!   I do wonder why you even asked the question to begin with.... Why not just answer your own question yourself and not risk having someone possibly teach you something?

You should ask God to forgive you for implying that I am a fool.   Whoever calls another person a fool is subject to Hell (Matthew 5:22-24).   No need to ask my forgiveness, because I was not offended....  I considered the source!  :-)