Feast Or Famine

“but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:17

Surely Die – Hebrew handles emphasis by manipulating the structure of the language.  Without punctuation, words are arranged in ways that draw attention to particular ideas.  You will remember the previous verse where the Hebrew words achol tochel (eat freely) emphasizes the diversity and sufficiency of God’s garden of delight by repeating the root achal twice (tochel is a form of achal).  Doubling the word puts emphasis on the idea.  Putting the word in first or last position in the sentence does the same.  In this verse about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, another word is doubled.  That word is mot.  The verse in Hebrew doesn’t say “surely die.”  It says “die die” just like the verse says “eat eat.”

OK, so we know something about the structure of this language.  So what?  Ah, but there’s something else happening with this structural arrangement that we need to know.  Hebrew thought is often grouped inside word frames called an inclusio.   Remember that Hebrew doesn’t have paragraphs either.  So, if I want to draw a frame around one particular idea, I must draw the frame with words.  A double word in one place draws my attention to a double word in another place.  I am encouraged to consider the similarities or differences between the doubled words in order to understand the full thought of the narrative.

The first doubled word (achol tochel) describes the magnificent fecundity of God’s delightful provision.  Everything I need is present and available to me.  Of course, this is a lot more than fruit salad (remember that).  Here’s the important point.  The words used for enjoying God’s full provision are descriptive.  They state the facts about the Garden.  It is a place where true satisfaction is found under every tree – except one.  In the same “frame,” the words about dying are also descriptive.  Under that one tree, life as defined by God comes to an end.  But this is a description of the facts, not a prescription.  God isn’t giving Adam a rule.  He’s telling Adam the way it is.  “If you eat of that tree, then this will happen.”  The parallel double words connect descriptive statements.  God doesn’t command Adam to eat from every tree.  He offers every tree.  In the same way, God warns Adam about the one tree.  In both cases, God states the facts.

Why is it important to notice that the parallelism inside the frame is descriptive rather than prescriptive?  Because we can’t understand the punishment for disobedience if we don’t understand the structure of the prohibition.  God says (descriptively) that eating from this one tree will result in mot tamoot.  Adam eats.  But he doesn’t die instantly, does he?  He lives for many, many years.  So, Christian theology accounts for this discrepancy by saying that Adam died spiritually.  But that doesn’t maintain the parallelism.  The opposition is between fully satisfied and empty.  Feast or famine.  Adam’s choice is between God’s design for delight or his decision to make his own garden.  What Adam loses in his choice is the place of God’s delightful life.  He is thrust out of the Garden into a world of his own making without the delightful provisions of God.  As a result of disobedience, he experiences insufficiency.  He has to labor to find delight.

We tend to think that Adam’s sin resulted in spiritual separation and spiritual separation results in death.  From this, we proceed to the need for repentance and redemption.  In other words, we connect Adam’s sin with Yeshua’s death, placing them both in the spiritual arena.  Of course, there is a connection between Adam’s disobedience and Yeshua’s redemption.  Sha’ul is quite clear about this.  But this isn’t the only consequence.  As the concluding element of the frame, mot tamoot describes what it means to be outside of God’s delight.  It isn’t just spiritual death.  It’s alienation from the provision of God.  Adam’s sin turns delight into destitution.  To live under God’s umbrella is to experience His provision.  To disobey is to experience emptiness and struggle.  There’s more to death than spiritual eventualities.

Topical Index:  die, mot tamoot, delight, Genesis 2:17