Biblical scholars hold that Adam sinned in eating the Tree of Knowledge. Our reading of the Holy Bible, however, suggests that Adam sinned in delaying the eating of the Tree of Knowledge. This was a minor sin for which God forgave him. The tenor of the story is positive—Adam and mankind evolved.
What did God tell Adam about the Tree of Knowledge?
The Lord God took the man and placed him in the orchard in Eden to care for it and to maintain it (Genesis 2:15).
We assume that Adam knew of the Tree of Knowledge since he tended the Garden.
The Prohibition:
Then God told Adam:
(God said) You may freely eat fruit from every Tree of Knowledge of the orchard, but you must not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die (Genesis 2:16-17).
Adam knew of the Tree of Knowledge. Yet, he did not eat these. Then God prohibited Adam from eating the Tree of Knowledge. And, Adam continued the “not eating.”
Satan Prompts to Eat
The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die, for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like divine beings who know good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5).
Satan encouraged Adam and Eve to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. He assured them that they would not die as said by God. So Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge. But they did not die as God had said would happen. We now consider possible explanations for Adam not dying.
Clothes and Crop Cultivation
Adam and Eve evolved after eating the Tree of Knowledge:
Then the eyes of both of them opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves (Genesis 3:7).
They started to make clothes for themselves. Then:
God said to Adam ‘Because you… ate from the Tree of Knowledge… cursed is the ground… in painful toil, you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, but you will eat the grain of the field’ (Genesis 3:17-18).
Adam started cultivating crops and eating them. Anthropological studies indicate that man was earlier a hunter-gatherer. He used to gather fruits from the trees and live off them. Then he started to cultivate crops. This was a step forward in the evolution of man.
Main Question
Why were the results of alleged “sin” altogether good? Adam started wearing clothes to protect from cold; and tilling land to provide ample food. Yes, the earth also produced thorns and thistles, but that was better than the earth not producing at all. He gave birth to the pious Abel. He gave birth to Seth who was the progenitor of Adam’s line. Adam was not “punished” in any way whatsoever. So, we must consider whether he sinned at all. Now we consider various explanations offered to explain the “sin” of Adam.
What is death and immortality?
One explanation is that Adam and Eve were immortal. They became subject to death after they ate the Tree of Knowledge. However, the Bible does not speak of immortality. Further, homo sapiens evolved at 150k years ago. Death has been known since then and was the norm. All living beings from amoeba to man are mortal. There is no reason for us to assume that Adam would have been immortal.
God’s statement “You will surely die” should be read as a double stress on the death that is seen all around. It must be understood as immediate death.
Further, God says: “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever” (Genesis 3:22). Thus, Adam was mortal when he ate of the Tree of Knowledge. He would have become immortal if he had eaten of the Tree of Life. We cannot assume he was immortal in the beginning.
Did the Bible say Adam lived 930 years?
Another explanation is that Adam was destined to live for 1,000 years—which is a day with the Lord:
But, this one thing, forget not, beloved,––that, one day, with the Lord, is as a thousand years, and, a thousand years, as one day (2Pet 3:8).
Let us say Adam ate of the Tree of Knowledge at 8 am on God’s Day, and Adam died, say, at 11 pm on the same God’s Day. It follows that Adam would have lived in a cursed situation between 8 am and 11 pm on God’s Day. However, the Bible tells of God blessing him in this time:
The Lord God made garments from skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them (Genesis 3:21).
That means that God blessed Adam after he ate the Tree of Knowledge. He was not accursed during this time.
What is the meaning of spiritual death?
The explanation offered is that Adam died spiritually:
It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living person”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit (1 Cor 15:44-46).
This explanation needs reconsideration for the following reasons.
1. These verses tell of Adam’s evolution from the physical to the spiritual. On the contrary, the idea of spiritual death indicates a devolution from the physical-plus-spiritual to physical-only.
2. The Hebrew word for “death,” according to Strong’s Concordance, means: “to die, kill, have one executed; to die (as a penalty), be put to death; to die, perish (of a nation); to die prematurely (by the neglect of wise moral conduct); to kill, put to death, dispatch; to kill, put to death…” All these point to a physical death.
3. Adam gave birth to spiritually evolved Abel after his alleged spiritual death. That is unlikely if Adam was himself spiritually dead.
Another similar argument is that Adam did not enter the Kingdom of God because he died spiritually:
Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:5-6).
However, this verse is only saying that there should be another spiritual birth after the physical birth. It is indeed possible that Adam did not make it to the second spiritual birth. But this indicates that spiritual birth comes after physical birth. It does not say that spiritual death can follow physical death. It seems that once a person is spiritually born, he can die physically, but not spiritually.
How do we know that God doesn’t lie?
Explanation offered is that God does not lie:
God is not a man that he should lie; neither the son of man that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? (Numbers 23:19).
God’s words have to be understood in the context in which they are said. For example:
God said (to Abraham), “Take your son – your only son, whom you love, Isaac– and go to the land of Moriah! Offer him up there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will indicate to you” (Genesis 22:2).
Here, God wanted to test Abraham. So he asked Abraham to sacrifice his son though spiritually he had no intention of completing the sacrifice. Or, if a mother lies to the child to secure his or her welfare then it is a technical lie but a spiritual truth.
Harmony was disturbed
Adam was living in perfect harmony with nature:
“God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27).”
“God saw all that he had made – and it was very good! (Genesis 1:31).”
The explanation offered is that the loss of the abovementioned harmony was the punishment. Adam was subject to toiling and growing crops after eating the Tree of Knowledge whereas he was living without any want or worry earlier. However, the verse above does not talk of Adam and Eve. This verse could refer to the creation of male and female gametes—the earliest distinction between the sexes. Also, we are assuming that the living conditions in the Garden were blissful. A visit to the tribal areas will show that living in nature is very difficult.
A variant of this explanation is that the punishment was that Adam was required to toil in cultivation after he ate the Tree of Knowledge. However, the overall trajectory of human beings described in the Bible is that of evolution—from Adam to God-believing Noah, Abraham, and Moses. It is indeed possible that Adam lived in a primitive stupor. His stupor was broken and he was forced to toil. However, this was a step towards spiritual evolution. It is something like a connection at 12 volts or 110 volts. To move from 12 to 110, one has to first disconnect from 12 volts. That disconnection could be the toiling by Adam. Yet was this a step towards a higher level of connection at 110 volts? Adam may have been more directly connected with God before eating the Tree of Knowledge but at a low level. He may have “disconnected” from God—but only to evolve to a higher level of connection.
What are negative suggestions?
Now we can recapitulate the story. Adam was the caretaker of the Garden and had access to the Tree of Knowledge. However, he did not eat it. Then, God told him not to eat of it otherwise he would die. Yet Adam ate of it and did not die. Instead, his eyes were opened and he developed the capacity to clothe himself with leaves and cultivate crops.
Adam was good before he ate of the Tree of Knowledge and he was better after he ate of it. So what could be the meaning of God prohibiting him and Eve from eating the Tree of Knowledge that was so beneficent?
Adam was the caretaker of the Garden. Perhaps he also knew that eating the Tree of Knowledge would be good in some way. But Adam did not eat of it. Perhaps he was lethargic. Then, to prod him into eating the Tree of Knowledge, God could have given him a “negative suggestion.” A mother may put some nourishing fruits before a child but he/she does not eat. Then the mother may say, “Do not eat the fruit.” The curiosity of the child could thus be aroused and he may eat the fruit. Similarly, God could have given a negative suggestion to prod Adam to eat the Tree of Knowledge. But Adam took the “negative suggestion” literally and still did not eat of the Tree of Knowledge. Then God encouraged Satan to plod them into eating of the Tree of Knowledge. Finally, Adam and Eve ate the Tree of Knowledge and benefited as God wanted.
The sin of Adam, therefore, was not in eating of the Tree of Knowledge. Rather, his sin was that he did not eat of it despite him being a caretaker and knowing of its benefits.