Henotheism in the Hebrew Bible.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

What a set-up THAT was, eh?

1. An immortal, non-omnipotent being cannot have an understanding of death, so ‘thou shalt surely die’ would have been gibberish. But there’s wide agreement that God used ‘die’ in a spiritual, as opposed to a physical sense, since those poor, benighted kids didn’t drop down dead the day they at the fruit.

2. Rating from the Tree imparted knowledge of good and evil, so until they ate, Adam and Eve could not possibly have known it was wrong to disobey God.

As origin myths go, it’s a pretty clumsy one.

Boru

Death simply means 'separation', in this case it means separation from God. Sin cannot enter the presence of God, hence "The soul that sinneth, it shall die."- Ezekiel 18:20 or in other words be cut off from the presence of God. An atonement had to be made for sin in order for man to once again enter the presence of God.

Then man wasn’t originally immortal?

Boru