BIBLE COMMENTARY/Genesis 2: 17
GENESIS 2: 17 – 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.
– This is the first command that God instructed Adam not to do. He was free to eat all the fruits in Eden except for the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But Adam did not obey God. It’s the first sin that brought physical death into the Garden (Romans 5: 12). The outside world already had Satan’s creatures (Matthew 13: 24-25, 37-38).
– The death that God mentioned in His warning is not spiritual death like many people have misunderstood, because after eating the forbidden fruit, Adam still communicated with God. The spiritual death is the eternal punishment that only happens after the Judgment day (Revelation 20: 14, 21: 8). No one actually suffers the spiritual death when they are still alive because there is still a chance of repentance (Isaiah 1: 8, Ezekiel 33: 12, 1John 1: 7)
– Before eating the forbidden fruit, physical death was not present in Adam’s life (meaning he could not turn old), because he was allowed to eat the fruit of life (Genesis 2: 16) which could give eternal life (Genesis 3: 22). Only after he ate the forbidden fruit that God prevented him from eating the fruit of life (Genesis 3: 22). That’s why after that he only lived for another 930 years. The years were counted from the time he disobeyed God, not from the time he was created as people have misunderstood it.
QUOTED VERSES:
GENESIS 2: 16 – And the LORD God commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.
GENESIS 3: 22 – 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.
ISAIAH 1: 18 – Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
EZEKIEL 33: 12 – Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth.
MATTHEW 13: 24-25 – Another parable put he forth unto them, saying: The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
MATTHEW 13: 37-38 – He answered and said unto them: He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man, the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one.
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.
REVELATION 20: 14 – And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
REVELATION 21: 8 – But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
1JOHN 1: 7 – But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin