Biblical Hebrew Forum

["K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

One thing that is being overlooked here is the use for "the day".

It is well known that when connected with a number, that "day" refers
to a single day, or the number of days mentioned by the number. But
when used as a generality, both in Biblical Hebrew and English, it can
refer not only to a day, but to an unspecified period of time. For
Adam, the dying started at the eating of the fruit, but didn't reach
its conclusion until 930 years later.

Karl W. Randolph.

On 11/13/06, kenneth greifer <greifer AT hotmail.com> wrote:
> I don't think that Genesis 3:2-3 shows that Adam and Eve would die from
> eating the fruit because the plural verb "you will die" is used. It is
> possible that Adam misunderstood the original quote from Genesis 2:17 "you
> will die". Maybe G-d said "she (the garden) will die" and Adam thought he
> meant "you will die". Maybe Adam told Eve the wrong information about who
> will die, them or the garden.
>
> Actually, this is just a wild guess. I think it probably said "you will
> die", but I was just considering another possibility for fun. I think Adam
> and Eve did not have knowledge of good and evil before they ate the fruit to
> know that the snake was lying to them , so they were not punished as
> severely and did not die that day.
>
> Kenneth Greifer