At What Point Did Death Enter Humanity?
By Jonathan Mitchell
Paul instructs us, in Rom. 5, that:
12. Because of, and through, this (or: Therefore; That is why), just as through one man (or: So it is that, even as through the act or agency of one person,) The Sin (or: the miss of the target; "the derangement of our nature") entered into the aggregate of humanity (ordered system of religion, culture, society and government; or: world; cosmos), and through The Sin (failure; the mistake; the miss of the target; the deviation), The Death [also entered]. In this way, The Death thus also passed through in all directions (or: came through the midst causing division and duality; pervaded; permeated throughout) into all mankind (or: into the midst of all humanity; or: to all people), upon which [situation and condition, the result is that] all people sin (or: whereupon, everyone failed and fell short of the goal, and thus all make mistakes, deviate from the path, and become sinners) [cf 8:6, below; Gen. 2:17; 3:1ff]
13. - for you see, until (or: Now it follows that, up to the point of, or prior to,) Law (or: custom),sin (failure; missing of the target; deviation from the goal; "derangement" - Schleiermacher)continued existing within an ordered System(centered in a world of religion, government, economy, culture and organized societies; or: in union with an aggregate of humanity), yet sin (failure; missing; deviating) is not continuing to be logically considered (normally to be taken into account, calculated or put on one's account or ledger; constantly to be included in a collection or by thought), there being (existing) no law, code or custom. [cf Jas. 1:15]
The "one man" to which he refers, in Rom. 5:12, is Adam. The context is Gen. 2-3, which speaks concerning the partaking of the fruit of the tree of, "the knowledge of good and evil"" (Hebrew text). God's instruction to Adam was (in the LXX),
"from the tree of the [situation; condition] to progressively know by intimate, existential experience of, and from, [the] beautiful (fine; ideal) as well as of, and from, [the] misery-gushed (painful; anguished; harmful; unsound; worthless; useless; unprofitable; disadvantageous; malevolent; wrong; bad; evil; laborsome; malignant), do not eat from it, and yet, in (or: on) whatever day you folks may (should or would at some point) eat from it, with (or: by; for; in; unto) death you folks will be progressively dying away" (Gen. 2:17).
Of course, we know that they did eat of this tree's fruit. So, what happened? The story continues in Gen. 3:
7. And then the woman saw that the tree [is; was] ideal with a view to food, that [it is/was] pleasing for (or: to) the eyes to see, and it was being seasonably handsome to contemplate (to direct or focus the mind down on and ponder; to attentively study and carefully consider), so upon taking from its fruit, she immediately ate. Then she also gave to her husband, with her, and they ate.
8. Then the eyes of the two were suddenly fully opened wide (or: opened throughout the midst) and they instantly knew by [this] intimate and insightful experience that they had been existing being naked, and so they stitched (or: sewed) leaves of a fig tree and made (or: crafted; constructed; created) effects of girding around (or: belts and aprons for a loincloth; or: effects surrounding [their] life parts) for themselves.
9. Then at one point they heard the Voice (or: sound) of [the] Lord (= Yahweh) God progressively walking around within the paradise (orchard; garden-park), in the afternoon, toward evening, and so both Adam and his wife hid (concealed) themselves (or: were hidden) within the midst of the wood (= orchard; forest) of the paradise (garden-park; orchard), away from the face (= presence) of [the] Lord (= Yahweh) God.
10. So (or: Then) [the] Lord (= Yahweh) God at one point summoned (or: called; invited) Adam, and said, "Adam, where are you (or: where do you exist)?"
11. So (or: Then) he said to Him, "I heard, then listened to, Your Voice (or: the sound of You) progressively walking around within the paradise (garden-park; orchard) and I was caused to fear, because I exist being (or: I am) naked, and so I was caused to hide.
Their reactions to hearing the Voice (or: sound) of Yahweh, walking around [cf Rev. 2:1b] within the paradise (garden-park), was to hide from Him (3:9). We read Adam's reason in 3:11, "I was caused to fear, because I exist being (or: I am) naked, and so I was caused to hide." Notice the passive voice, "caused to fear... caused to hide." We suggest that it was Death, within them, that caused these reactions. They did not want to face the Lord or be in His presence... and this was the condition of their, "existing being dead ones in (or: to; with; or: by) the results and effects of [their] stumblings aside (offenses; wrong steps) and failures to hit the mark (or: mistakes; errors; times of falling short [of God's glory - Rom. 3:28]; sins; times of going wrong; deviations)" [Eph. 2:1]. Adam and Eve were dead (in the sense of Eph. 2:1) before they were sent out of Paradise.
Paul has more to say about dying, in Rom. 7:
5. You see, when WE were existing within the Flesh (or: = in the natural realm of Adamic existence, with the flesh markers and temple cultus; [cf 8:9, below]), the effects, impressions, emotions and impulses, from the experiences, passions, and suffering, of the failures (from the sins and deviations which caused misses of the target) - those things through means of the Law [the Torah] - continued operating, of themselves (or: were constantly inwardly-working, autonomously), centered within the midst of, and in the sphere of, our members, into the condition, or situation, to produce fruit by the Death (or: in, to, for, with, that Death).
We suggest that Paul is in this verse referencing Adam, and thus the human predicament, along with the results of the Death which followed the disobedience [cf Rom. 5:14-17] when he ate from the tree, in the Garden.
Now in these following verses of Rom. 7, Paul seems to be referencing first the Law, through Moses, and 7b offers an example:
7. What, then, shall we say (or: declare)? [Is] the Law (or: custom) sin (error; failure to hit the target; deviation from the goal)? Certainly not (May it not come to be)! Instead (or: But rather), I did not (or: do not) at any point experientially and intimately know the Sin, if not through Law ([= Torah]; or: custom). For besides, I had not seen and thus had not known (become conscious of) the full passion (earnest desire; lust; coveting; emotion upon something) if the Law and the custom were not continuously saying (or: except the [Torah] kept on saying), "You will not continue putting strong emotions upon something (or: You will not repeatedly have a strong impulse or desire; You will not constantly crave or covet [other folks' possessions or their gods])." [Ex. 20:17; Deut. 5:21; comment: the "I" here = Adam (Gen. 3)/Israel (Ex. 32)/Paul (personifying non-Christian existence)]
But, in the next verse Paul can be referencing either Adam's experience, in the Garden, or the Israelite's experience following the implanted goal through Moses:
8. Yet the Sin (or: the failure; the error; the mistake; this missing of the target; the Deviation from the goal; or: the derangement of our nature - Schleiermacher), taking (receiving in the hand and, thus, obtaining) an onrush from a starting point (a base of operation and occasion to move forward; a means of beginning) through this implanted goal (impartation of the finished product, destined within; inward directive; commandment [to Adam, then to Israel]), works (or: worked) down to effect and produce within me every full passion, strong impulse, over-desire and craving emotion upon things - for apart from Law (or: a custom or code; or: [Torah]) sin (error; failure; missing the target; deviation) [is] dead (or: [was] lifeless).
The commandment to Adam worked in them, and "continued operating" (Rom. 7:5b, above), to produce the disobedience, which resulted in Death entering them. In 7:8, what had happened to Adam, in the Garden, happened to Israel at Mt. Sinai. In the next three verses of Rom. 7, Paul seems to be using personification to apply these principles to all of humanity:
10. Also, the implanted goal (impartation of the finished product within; inward directive; commandment) - the one [meant to lead] into Life - this was found by me (for me; in me; to me) [to be leading] into Death. [comment: was not this the progression which we read in the Garden story with Adam and Eve?]
11. For the Sin (failure; error; this miss when shooting at a target; the deviation from the goal; the derangement of our nature), taking an onrush from a starting point (receiving an inducing occasion and base of operation) through means of this implanted goal (or: impartation of the finished product within; inward directive; commandment [to Adam, then to Israel]), completely makes me unable to walk the Path (made me incapable to walk out [customs of the Law]; thoroughly cheats and deludes me, making me lose my Way; deceives me;
[comment: reference to Eve in Gen. 3:13; cf 1 Tim. 2:14]), and then through it, kills me off (or: slaughtered me).
It would seem, from 7:11, that the Sin, the Deviation and the Error (disobedience... eating the fruit) became an active agent, within Adam and Eve, much as does poison in a piece of fruit when it is eaten. We gain more insights from Paul, in 1 Cor. 15:56. Now the sharp point and stinger of (or: the sting, thus, the injection from) the Death [is] the Sin (the mistake; the error; the failure; the deviation), and the inherent power, means of influence, and ability, of the Sin [is] the Law. [cf Rom. 4:15]Here, once again, it seems that the Sin is the active agent, but it gets its inherent power from the Law.
It follows, then, from Rom 5:12b, that this Death passed from Adam and Eve to their two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain's story (Gen. 4) demonstrates just how he was Dead, and as a result of that he sinned... first by bringing the wrong kind of offering to God, and then by killing his brother. Another example of Cain's Death condition was his reaction to how God responded to his offering:
"And it distressed Cain exceedingly, and he collapsed in countenance" (Gen. 4:5, A New English Translation of the Septuagint).This was a response from the Death that was in Cain. It displayed his degenerated ego. And then, God responded to Cain:
"Why are you become sorrowful and why is your countenance collapsed and dejected? Though you have offered right (or: If you offer correctly - NETS), yet if you have not rightly divided, have you not sinned? Be composed. To you shall be his (or: its) recourse (or: return), and you will rule over him (or: it)" (Gen. 4:6-7. Charles Thomson, other additions mine).
The Hebrew text of Gen. 7b reads,
"But since you have not done well, [there is: a sin [offering], [a flockling], reclining at [the] portal, and for you [is] restoration [in] his [sacrifice]; you are ruling over him" (CVOT).
This Version footnotes: cf Lev. 4:3, where the same Heb. word is rendered both "sin," and "sin offering." Robert Alter renders this:
"For whether you offer well or whether you do not, at the tent flap sin crouches, and for you is its longing, but you will rule over it."
The narrative context is that of offerings. But consider Paul's statement in Rom. 7:20-21,
"Yet since (or: in view of the fact that; if, as is the case,) that which I am not willing (intending; purposing), THIS I am constantly doing, I myself am no longer producing (working down or effecting) it, but rather, [it is] the Sin (this Failure; the Error; the missing of the Goal; this Deviation [from Torah-keeping]; cf 1 Cor. 15:56, above) continuously housing herself (making its home; dwelling) centered within the midst of, and in union with, me [= Adam, or an Israelite, personified].
Consequently, I keep on finding this principle in me (or: the law for, and with, me) - in the person normally willing (purposing; intending) to habitually do (perform; produce) the ideal (the beautiful; the fine) - that in me (or: with me; for me) the worthless (the ugly; the ignoble; the base; the evil) is constantly lying close by."
Since this text was written after the time of the Law (Moses), this may be the reason for inserting a sacrifice narrative as a part of the "next generation" story, which begins with Eve giving birth to Cain. Cain becomes the first (beginning) murderer and "the father of lies" (cf Gen. 4:9b and my article on the murderer and father of lies at: Who Was the Liar and the Father of it? Who Was a Man-killer,From the Beginning?). We suggest reading the remainder of Rom. 7 (vss. 12-25) through the lens of Cain's story in Gen. 4.
We conclude that Death entered humanity through the act of disobedience in Gen. 3, and that this set the course for humanity's journey through gushes of misery, from that act, on through time. But we must recall what Paul said, in Rom. 8:
20. For you see, the creation (or: that which was formed, framed and founded; [note: can also be a figure for Israel under the Law]) was placed, arranged and aligned under subjection in the empty purposelessness (or: subordinated to vanity and by futility; made supportive to fruitless nonsense: in worthlessness, for nothingness, with pointlessness; brought under a sphere of frustration), not voluntarily or willingly (from out of [its] being), but rather because of (on account of; for the sake of) the one ([cf 5:12-21, above]; or: the One) placing [it] under and arranging [it] in subjection (or: in supportive alignment) - based upon an Expectation (or: with a view to expectant hope; [cf Gen. 3:18b; 49:10; Gal. 3:7-9, 14, 19, 25-29]) -
21. because (or: that) even the creation [note: can = Israel and the Law] itself will continue being progressively set free (will be habitually liberated and constantly made free) from the slavery of, and from, decay (the bondage of deterioration which leads to fraying and ruin) [and released] into the freedom of the glory from the assumed appearance of God's children (or: into the liberty of the manifestation of that which calls forth praise from God's born-ones; or: unto the freedom coming from that imagination pertaining to children who are god/elohim [Jn. 10:34; Ps. 82:6; Acts 17:28-29a; vs. 29, below]; or: into the midst of the freedom inherent in the glory from those children belonging to God; or: into the midst of the emancipation of, from, and pertaining to the splendid thought, supposition and opinion belonging to the children from God). [cf Jn. 1:12, 13; 3:3, 7, 10; 2 Cor. 5:16-17]
Jonathan
John Gavazzoni comments: "Surely, the seed-form of the law was God's prohibition regarding eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The law through Moses codified what was already subjectively active in the Adamic family and through all creation. That interjection or interposition of the law that Paul wrote of began way back there. More and more, I read the garden story through an allegorical lens, i.e., while recognizing a literal dimension: a first couple placed in a real place, but from there on, reading the story as Adam and Eve being the garden, and in the garden that they were. From Paul: 'ye are God's husbandry (tillage/farm/planting), ye are God's building.'"
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