Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 13/11/2006 22:21, Peter Kirk wrote:
> On 13/11/2006 16:09, Steve Miller wrote:
>   
> > Additionally, the garden did not die in the day Adam ate off the tree of
> > knowledge. Gen 3:22-24
> >   
> >     
>
> Nor did Adam die. Well, we know that from the text, that he lived 
> another 930 years(!), which is of course the basic problem with the "you 
> shall surely die" interpretation, whereas your argument about the garden 
> is in fact from silence. So, while I would not argue for the garden 
> dying interpretation, this argument is of no help.
>
>   
I should clarify what I wrote here. Steve was apparently using "in the 
day" in the sense of a period of 24 hours, so I was also implicitly 
doing the same: nor did Adam die in the day (24 hours) that he ate. Of 
course, as Karl reminded us, the Hebrew expression here does not mean 
"in the day" in this restricted sense, but more generally "at the time". 
And this is how I would explain the apparent contradiction. But this 
argument can be applied just as well to the garden as to Adam: if there 
is no contradiction in Adam dying "in the day", there is also no 
contradiction in the garden dying "in the day", unless of course someone 
can prove that the garden is alive eternally.

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
Blog:    http://speakertruth.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/