Alex S. answered • 03/29/19
Religious Scholar with Over 5 Years Experience
This is a great question. Satan does not get a lot of text in the Bible, so you picked a good example.
Gen 2:17 God says "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
Gen 3:3 is Eve saying "But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." God did not say anything about touching the tree, so Eve added to God's words.
Satan follows up in Gen 3:4-5 by saying " Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
Adam and Eve were immortal at that point. Once they ate from the tree, God removed their immortality by removing them from the garden and they did, in fact, begin to die. Furthermore, God cursed the entire planet and all of humanity (Gen 3:16-22).
So God fulfilled his promise of death entering humanity via sin. Satan lied when he said that Eve would not "surely die" - because she obviously did die, just not in that instant. In the day that she ate from the tree, she began the process of death.
Nate V.
so...when did "god" specifically tell them that while in the Garden they would live forever?? I don't think he ever did..in fact, I think he was saying if they ate the fruit they would instantly die..which they didn't...So "god" lied and Satan told the truth.10/21/21
Dana G.
The death that God was talking about here is a spiritual death..and a spiritual death is separation from God. That's is exactly what happened..bc of sin mankind was separated from God until the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sin and though him we are forgiven and spiritually alive again..that is what Jesus meant by they will worship me in spirit and truth.11/20/21
Angie P.
And the fact that god brought us Jesus Christ and gave Us a chance to enter heaven and continue life after death isn’t that proof that it’s not a “sure death” and that devil told the truth?11/21/21
Jer X.
Well that is some serious Obi Wan spin on what the text actually says. "It is true that they died after eating it, from a certain point of view."12/08/21
Dvdd C.
So people sinned by eating forbidden fruit. Then God punished us by taking our immortality. Then God sent his son to earth. We told Jesus that he wasn't the son of God and we would prove it by torturing him in front of God until he died and if he was really God's son God would save him. Then God allowed us to brutally murder his son and he was so grateful that he forgave all of our sins. Yet he didn't give us back our immortality back. So murder is a forgivable sin but eating an apple isn't. God sounds like he has his priorities mixed up01/26/22
Richard R.
It could also be interpreted as the fruit of knowledge gave Adam and eve the concept of death. They had no concept of good/evil everything just "was" with no critical/ extrapolative thought. By eating from the fruit of knowledge it's the difference between existing and being self aware. It's what makes modern man an existence that lives separate from the natural world and sets us apart from other animals. "Be as gods" capable of travelling among the stars, dreaming, creating life, altering our own planet, destruction, science/technology.05/18/22
Ben C.
But they didn't even spiritually die. What is being skirted around is that; the bible never shows satan lying, in fact, he is always telling the truth...god on the other hand does lie and deceive, it's quit alarming really. side note, even more alarming, add up satans kill count and compare to gods...that's ZERO to millions. Some include jobs family, I don't, bit if you insist we have less than ten to millions still. Even tempting jesus with dominion over earthly kingdoms isn't a lie...many today believe satan controls many "evil" leaders so surely he could do it. Pastors often say "satan will say/do this but there is no biblical rationale as satan is never shown doing that. Last point, how can a being that has no comprehension of sin or good/evil do either of them? It's like saying a snail that doesn't stop sliming my door is sinning against me...but it has no comprehension of neither sin nor myself so it's impossible as it was impossible for adam and eve to this sin...contrary to sunday school leasons they never wanted to be gods, they didn't think they knew better than god, they wanted to understand as god did to love him more, that's what genesis actually says. If you read without bias and preconceived notions you'll see these things pop out at you but most can't do that, they read with "my pastor says" tinted frames11/30/22
Nate V.
when did "god" specify that the Garden of Eden gave them immortality?10/21/21