Genesis 3:21-24

And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Focus on the Family has a wonderful video series where Ray Vander Laan takes a group of students around Israel and gives context to many Bible passages. It’s great, but here I’m only interested in the title—That the World May Know. The word “World” is clearly referring only to people; they’re the only ones who watch the videos. “World” means “everyone” there. It’s a common English colloquialism.

So it is in Greek. The word translated as “world” is κόσμος (kosmos). There are eight definitions for kosmos in the BDAG lexicon and the fifth one is “the world as mankind.” This is important because of the great weight given to Romans 5:12 in interpreting today’s passage.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world [kosmos] through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. — Romans 5:12 (ESV)

Some Bible commentators use a narrow interpretation of this passage to argue that there was no death of any kind before Adam and Eve sinned. But the plain reading of this passage is that death was normal. The making of garments of skins is not described as a big deal, even though animals died in the process. Also, we’re told that Adam and Eve won’t live forever because they can’t eat of the tree of life, not because something about them changed. If they didn’t need the tree of life to begin with, why is it even there?

But the strongest case against the “no death before the fall” view is the behavior of the serpent.

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.” — Genesis 3:4

The serpent directly contradicting God’s word is blasphemy; that’s sin. Sin wasn’t yet in the “kosmos” as mankind, but it was definitely in the “kosmos” as the Earth or as all of creation.

And the view that there was no death of any kind before the fall assumes that a huge miracle occurred where the whole world was transformed. Lions suddenly stopped eating grass and started eating sheep.

But none of this is mentioned in the Bible. Could one of the largest scale miracles in history be left out of inspired scripture? Even Adam and Eve’s transformation is described simply as their eyes were opened and they knew good and evil. Instead, the support for the “no death before the fall” view leans on a specific view of Romans 5:12. Even worse, many people consider this to be the “literal” interpretation.

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These weekday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. Saturdays' by Matt Richardson. Subscribe here: https://www.ailbe.org/resources/community

The weekly study guides, which include questions for discussion or meditation, are here: https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies

Scripture taken from the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.