Biblical Concept of Hell. William Hyland
ways”(Hebrews 1:1), He decreed the penalty for disobeying Him solely to the first human: the disobeyer “shall surely die.”(Genesis 2:17) His warning employed one Hebrew verb in two of its phases, the qal infinitive absolute (מוֹת) followed by the second person singular qal future (מוּת). The sole use of מוּת would have conveyed to Adam the impact of “die,” yet purposed this combination.
Why had Yahweh {cf. Genesis 2:4, 26:24; Exodus 20:2; Psalm 83:18} purposed this combination? Moshe Greenberg in his Introduction to Hebrew, page 54, acknowledged the possibility: “The infinitive absolute…is commonly used to add some sort of emphasis to the finite verb, which immediately follows it.” Was it for emphasis in order to impress upon Adam the extremely serious nature of His warning? See the end of this chapter for what Greenberg had in mind. He apparently thought the same with אָבַד [to perish] on three occasions:
אָבֹד תֹּאבֵדוּן (LXX: ἐξελθόντων). (Deuteronomy 4:26)
אָבֹד תֹּאבֵדוּן (LXX: ἀπωλείᾳ ἀπολεῖσθε). (Deuteronomy 8:19)
אָבֹד תֹּאבֵדוּן (LXX: ἀπωλείᾳ ἀπολεῖσθε). (Deuteronomy 30:18)
And once with סוּף ( to consume, cause to perish):
אָסֹף אָסֵף (LXX: ἐκλείψει ἐκλιπέτω). (Zephaniah 1:2)
The traditional English translation of this verbal coupling of מוֹת is “surely die,” but not one of the rare appearances of the ancient Hebrew word for “surely,” אָכֵן (Genesis 28:16; Exodus 2:14; 1 Samuel 15:32; 1 Kings 11:2; Job 32:8; Psalm 31:22(23), 66:19, 82:7; Isaiah 40:7, 45:15, 49:4, 53:4; Jeremiah 3:20,23, 4:10, 8:8; Zephaniah 3:7), accompanies any use of the מוֹת coupling. Chapter VI will come to grips with an appropriate meaning for this coupling, but for the sake of the discussion leading up to that, I will translate it literally as “die to die.” Although this phrase is prophetically nuanced, its primary meaning for all of Adam’s seed to accept was: life is limited, finite in duration, and dying is individually inevitable.
While it’s hard to imagine the time and effort first man needed in order to learn forest cultivation (Genesis 2:15) as well as to remember all the names he had given to the animals God had formed out of the ground (Genesis 2:19), it’s a mystery as to how he knew what pleased his Creator. Maybe there initially existed a master-slave relationship whereby Adam did instinctively what his Mentor instructed him. Based on what the Bible informs believers about His divine character, Yahweh had to have been very patient, kind and longsuffering with the creature in His own image. During this intense instructional period, it’s reasonable to assume that Adam would experience the death of an animal, possibly of one of the cattle under his care (Genesis 1:26) for food and/or skin (Genesis 3:21), and thereby had acquired an understanding of death before God had warned him (Genesis 2:17). I assert this only because the Creator’s loving, caring nature compelled Him to always address Adam’s realm of comprehension, particularly the ramification of his eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
But yet, the threat of that warning apparently instilled little or no fear in him or his helpmeet. The Serpent’s response to Eve (“you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5)) makes me wonder how well developed her and first man’s moral bearings were when hearing Yahweh’s warning. Did they really know only “good” while staying in the garden of Eden? Or were their moral compasses fully ignorant and devoid of “evil,” rendering them incapable of distinguishing right from wrong? Since the Scriptures lead me to understand that knowledge of good and evil was initially obtained by Eve and Adam through their intended consumption of the “forbidden” fruit, I conclude that they had begun their existence in God’s presence, thus exposed only to divine perfection, and thereby totally ignorant of “evil.”
Now Eve’s poor remembrance of what Yahweh had warned her, directly or through Adam, is reflected in her response to the Serpent’s enticement: “…from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die [תְּמֻתוּן]…’” (Genesis 3:3) But then the Serpent wooed her with a negation of God’s decree: “You will not die to die [מוֹת תָּמוּת].” (Genesis 3:3–4; possibly Book of Jubilees 3:19 as well) Eve had not repeated Yahweh’s verbal coupling, whereas the Serpent did, and she included His prohibiting her of even touching the tree, which He had not. As stated before, though, much more of this will be discussed in The Second Death chapter.
First man received (his help meet possibly only through him) verbal moral guidance and instruction (Genesis 2:7) directly from his Creator. The ultimate incentive to disregard His commandment was not the appeal of the tree’s fruit, leaves, or bark; rather, it was the opportunity of becoming like God. I suggest this because 1) there exists no inspired recording of any prior moral lesson and warning, and 2) in verse 5 of Chapter 3, the Serpent led them to believe that by “eating from the tree” (Genesis 2:17) their “eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Being like their Creator then became the lure, not the tree’s taste. The Serpent’s negation of Yahweh’s verbal coupling duped Eve and Adam, and as a result, all the earth became polluted” (Isaiah 24:5), causing “the whole creation” to groan and suffer (Romans 8:22) the just condemnation Yahweh meted out on the first couple as well as on all their offspring:
“Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns