Adam's Knowledge of Death

We find in the very first book in the Bible, this statement ...

"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 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."

Moses, the author of Genesis, does not intimate in any way that Adam had any knowledge of the nature of laws and penalties.  His written account of God's command to Adam was that he could eat from all of the trees in the garden of Eden except for one certain tree.  It was called the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil."

Because he lacked a full understanding of the penalty, death; all Adam could have possibly thought would occur would be the loss of life as he knew it ... physical death.  We have no reason to think he would understand it as referring to anything more than the loss of this natural life.  I'm not convinced he knew even that much; for if he did, would he have eaten the fruit?

We can look back on our experiences of death ... not our own but other people we have known.  We found out when death comes there is no breath, no heartbeat, just a cold lifeless body.  Adam didn't have this experience to fall back on.  As far as we can tell from scripture ... nothing had ever died up to that point, plant or animal.

Some learned men have described Adam as possessing all the knowledge of a modern theologian.  They seem to believe that God just put all knowledge intuitively in Adam when he was created.  Yes, I understand that Adam was intelligent, how else could he name all the animals.  I believe that most, if not all of Adam's knowledge came from walking with the Lord God, talking with Him, and asking questions about daily life.  But some things, like death, are learned only through experience.

We now realize from reading the Word of God, that when God said to Adam ... "for in the day that you eat of that tree you will surely die" ... the death God was referring to is what we call spiritual death, not physical death.  How could Adam understand spiritual death when there is no recorded reference to death up till then.  But Adam became a fallen creature that very day.  Physical death was also pronounced upon him that same day, but it took another 930 years before physical death claimed him after he was driven out of the garden, away from "the Tree of Life."

I've heard it said that Adam was the most knowledgeable being ever created.  I question that statement.  Knowledge has increased over time.  The knowledge Adam had, when compared to the knowledge gained over the past 6,000 years, would be less than the average man has today.  But knowing "facts" hasn't helped mankind to choose good over evil.  Man is still as sinful as ever.

That the first man in the infancy of the human race should be described as being superior to its highest advancement of knowledge today, in my opinion is unfounded.  But what I will say is this ... because at first, he wasn't a fallen creature ... Adam most likely had the greatest potential intellectually of any man who ever lived, simply because he was hand made and endowed with all the knowledge and ability God wanted him to have.  Knowledge and intellect are two different things.

So Adam, being acquainted with this one commandment and what the effects of the transgression of that law would be ... death ... and even with that knowledge, it is obvious he did not understand what the consequences would be.  Or could it be that he was just like we are today ... sometimes we just don't care.

The account by Moses is simple.  Adam was told not to violate this one simple law, or he would die.  He did it anyway; and God announced to him that the sentence of death would be inflicted on him, and that he should return to the dust of the earth that he came from.

What else this might involve, what other consequences sin might introduce to the world were unknown to Adam.  To think that all the consequences of the violation of a law must necessarily be foreseen in order to make the law and the penalty just ... is wrong.

It is sufficient that the law only be known; that it's violation is forbidden; and that the consequences of the violation of the Law of God ... are left to God.

And it was.

Adam's knowledge of death was not ... intuitive ... it had to be learned.


Comments welcome.