Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>]

On this verse, Ramban writes:

"At the time you eat of it, you will be condemned to die. (similar to 
I Kings 2:42 - this does not mean that Shimi is to die immediately on 
that day; nor does it refer to his mere knowledge thereof, namely 
that he is to know that he will die eventually.....But it does mean 
that at the time he - Shimi - goes forth from Jerusalem, he is liable 
to death at the hand of the king, and he will slay him when he 
pleases.  Similar to Numbers 4:20  and Leviticus 22:9 - Their intent 
is not that those who transgress against these prohibitions will die 
immediately, but only that they will be liable to death and die on 
account of this sin of theirs)

On his immortality, Ramban continues:

"Now in the opinion of men versed in the sciences of nature, man was 
destined to die from the beginning of his formation, on account of 
his being a composite [of the four elements, and everything that is 
composite must revert to its original components].  But now He 
decreed that if he will sin he will die on account of his sin, like 
those who are liable to death at the hands of Heaven for such sins as 
a non-priest eating the Heave-offering, or a priest who has drunk 
wine or who does not wear the [required number of priestly] garments 
when performing the Service in the Sanctuary, and other cases.  There 
the intent is that they will die PREMATURELY on account of their sin. 
This is why in stating the punishment [after Adam ate of the fruit of 
the tree of knowledge] He said, "Till thou return to the gournd, for 
out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt 
thou return (Genesis 3:19), by your nature.  In the beginning, before 
he sinned, Adam also ate of the fruit of the tree and of the seeds of 
the earth; and if so, there was bou nd to be depletion in his body, 
and he was subject to the cause of existence and destruction; thus 
the opinion of the men of science.

But in the opinion of our Rabbis (Talmud Shabbat 58b), if Adam had 
not sinned he would have never died, since the higher soul bestows 
life forever, and the Will of G-d which is in him at the time of his 
formation would always cleave to him and he would exist forever, as I 
have explained in the verse, "And G-d saw that it was good"

"And G-d saw that it was good" (Genesis 1:10)  This means that their 
continued existence was by His Will, and the purpose is that when He 
clothed them with this form He desired them to be so and their 
existence was thus established as I have explained (in verse 4). 
This conforms to what our Rabbis have said (Bereshit Rabba 4:8).

end of Ramban

Oral Torah (Kabbala) teaches that Adam was created with enormous 
spiritual stature,  that spanned from one end of the universe to the 
other, and that his soul originally contained ALL the souls of 
everyone that were to exist for eternity (Arizal in Shaar HaGilgulim).

Shoshanna




We touched on this just recently. The text merely state "in (the) day"
without specifying any particular day, not even "this" day, which is
often used to specify a period of time, not a particular day.

So it can be understood that Adam started dying the day he ate the
fruit, but it took 930 years before he was laid in the grave.

As for the targum, I'll let others discuss that.

Karl W. Randolph.