Bible Problem: Genesis 2:17. Why Didn’t Adam Die After Eating the Forbidden Fruit?
Problem:
In Genesis chapter 2 verse 17 God says to Adam:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
But in Genesis 3:6 Adam did eat the forbidden fruit and in Genesis chapter 5 verse 5 it says that Adam lived to be 930 years old!
Solution:
The word for “day” in the English is translated from the Hebrew word “Yom.” Yom relates to the concept of time and has several literal interpretations. Some of them are: a period of a general term for time, twenty-four hours, a year, a time period of unspecified length, and a long, but finite span of time – age – epoch – season.
Adam was created to be immortal, but when he sinned he had to die. Romans 6:23 says that the “wages of sin is death.” As soon as Adam sinned he began to die physically, and he did die after a time.
2 Peter 3:8 uses Yom this way: “that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
Also, Adam immediately died spiritually. See Ephesians chapter 2 for more about spiritual death.
God told Adam that if he sinned, he would die. God kept his word.