Was There Death Before The Fall?

Death and Mortality in Genesis! Evolutionary Creationism: Part 5 

Introduction 

In my first article on the subject of EC (Evolutionary Creationism), I talk about how the appearance of death before the fall caused me to question YEC (Young Earth Creationism). This article tracts themes of death and mortality in Genesis, arguing that death was a fact pre-fall. This article is a biblical discussion. If you are skeptical of the views expressed due to several NT passages, see the sequel article where I interpret the New Testament texts. They do not contradict. 

Death and Mortality in Genesis 1-3 

Genesis 1:28 

It is written 

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. (NIV) 

Many biblical scholars see this passage as implicit of death and conflict. These scholars argue from the words subdue and rule in this passage. The word Subdue 

... occurs 13 other times in the Bible. In 6 of these cases, it's used of war conquest… 5 other passages use it of forcing people into slavery… Micha 7:2 uses it as a reference to trampling underfoot and Esther 7:8 uses it as a locution for rape. (Stanhope, 2017, 5:40-5:58) 

We need to remember not to sanitize the text with any modern sensibilities. I (and you) should want to know what the original authors thought, not what we want them to think. The term is often “referring to ‘trampling under one’s feet’ in absolute subjugation” (Dyk, 2009, P. 190). 

Dr. Ee, Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Westminster Seminary California, discusses the Hebrew term and concludes, “Based on its other occurrences, {Subdue} denotes an active pursuit of dominion through force over someone offering some degree of resistance”. One example is Numbers 32. In verses 21-23, it is only after battle with the enemies of God that it is written, “the land is subdued…” (V23, NIV). 

One could say that Gen 1:28 is not a military context, so the word must be functioning differently there than in Numbers. However, militaristic language appears in v28. Van Ee (2013) notes Gen 1:28 is the only place where {subdue} appears with {earth or land}, as its direct object; however, there are four uses of the Niphal of {subdue} with {earth or land} as the subject… All of them are in the context of Israelite wars against other nations in the land of Canaan. (brackets mine)

The word subdue in connection with land always denotes military conquest. Evidence for this interpretation appears in Genesis 22:17 (See also Gen 24:60). There is a connection between fruitfulness/descendants (producing offspring) and dominating the opposing force. Clark (1968) draws the same conclusion when he states, “Numerous descendants is viewed as an essential ingredient of success, in military ventures as elsewhere” (P. 436). Genesis 1:28 makes the same connection. God commands humans to increase and then subdue. There is a logical sense to this. The numbers you have, the better your chances at subduing a hostile force. 

The arguments laid out here are well-recognized in the scholarship. John Oswalt, in the 80s, stated, 

Despite recent interpretations of Gen 1:28 which have tried to make "subdue" mean a responsibility for building up, it is obvious from an overall study of the word's usage that this is not so. käbash assumes that the party being subdued is hostile to the subduer, necessitating some sort of coercion if the subduing is to take place… Therefore “subdue" in Gen 1:28 implies that creation will not do man's bidding gladly or easily and that man must now bring creation into submission by main strength. (Bruce et al, P. 430, 1980) 

Similarly, Spanner (1987) states 

The Hebrew word for “subdue” is kabas, and in all its other occurrences in Scripture (about twelve in all) it is used as a term indicating strong action in the face of opposition, enmity or evil. Thus, the land of Canaan was “subdued” before Israel, though the Canaanites had chariots of iron (Josh. 17:8; 18:1); weapons of war are “subdued,” so are iniquities (Zech. 9:15; Micah 7:19). The word is never used in a mild sense. It indicates, I believe, that Adam was sent into a world where all was not sweetness and light, for in such a world what would there be to subdue? The animals, it suggests, included some that were wild and ferocious, and Adam was charged to exercise a genuinely civilizing role and to promote harmony among them. (Spanner, as cited in Biologos, 2024) 

The term translated rule is predominately in royal contexts (Ps 72). The use of it here then makes sense because many scholars note that kings were the ones who were god's images on earth (Ee, 2013; Imes, 2023). When this passage calls humans God's image, it democratizes royalty and representation of the divine to all humanity. The term always implies benefits for the ruling. However, it does not always entail harsh treatment to the party ruled (Ee, 2013; Ps 72). 

In conclusion, God called humanity (a royal class of creatures) to enact a war-like conquest of the land and its creatures. By this conquest, hostile lands and creatures are put under the power of humanity (see AMP Bible for the language). Humanity masters the earth (see Expanded Bible for the language). Koulagna (2020) concludes, “Both verbs denote man taking over (in a military way); the Earth and all that is in it are to serve him, because of his being an image of God” (P. 4). What this does and does not imply is discussed in the implications section of this analysis (hint: Christian ecologist need not worry).

Genesis 2:16-17 

It is written 

And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die 

There are MANY interpretations of this passage. God lying, changing his mind, hyperbole, dying spiritually, and physically doomed to die have all been proposed. First, we should take a look at the historical and literary context. 

Many biblical scholars have said Genesis 1 is a seven-day inauguration of the cosmos as God's temple, with Eden as a sacred space and Adam as a priest (Middleton, 2016; Walton, 2009; Drimalla et al, 2021). The reasons for this are manifold. Creation transpires in 7 days, and temple dedications happen in 7 days. The cosmos and temple have a three-part design. Even God resting implies temple imagery. Dr. Buller (2015), reviewing Dr. Walton's book, states, “For an ancient audience, divine rest always happens in a temple, and a temple itself is seen as a place of divine rest” (para. 2). 

Under this view, the garden in Eden acts as a temple on earth. The design of Eden is a prototype of the Tabernacle and the temple. Garden imagery such as the cherub placed around the garden, facing east, and being situated on a mountain all invoke Edenic images. Therefore, Temple texts of the ANE are good background information for interpreting Genesis 1-3. With this backdrop, interpreters can understand the death threat in Gen 2. 

We have temple garden texts from Babylon where the leader says they will die if x happens, then x happens, and they do not die (Wells, 2023). The temple was able to change their mind about what punishment they wanted to give based on the circumstances and the disobedience. The threats were conditional. 

This is what occurs here. God is the leader of the temple and issues a threat of physical death if they take from the sacred object. However, God changes his mind, gives different punishments, and allows the natural course of their life to play out, which leads to death (Genesis 3:8-23, Gen 5:5). A potential problem arises because this would seem to threaten the biblical doctrine of divine immutability (God does not change; Leftow, 2024). 

There is precedent for God changing his mind about something. God decides not to destroy Israel after Moses intercedes on their behalf (Ex 32:12-14). Chisholm (2006) discusses the Hebrew and says, “Though the NIV uses “relent”... the underlying Hebrew verb is the same one translated “change his mind” in Numbers 23:19… The Hebrew verb carries the same meaning” (Para. 3). He concludes that God can change his mind when God announces his purpose or acts conditionally. If a statement from God (implicitly or explicitly) is conditional, God can choose between the options he gave himself and whoever he speaks to. 

The debate about God changing his mind may also depend on how you define Divine Immutability. For example, Pawl (n.d.) states, “Divine immutability rules out that God go from being one way to being another way. But it does not rule out God knowing, desiring, or acting differently than he does” (Section: Immutability and Modal collapse). God is entirely free to desire or act in many ways without conflicting with his nature. The covenant of God changes (Heb 7-10), thus how God interacts with his people changes (Heb 1:1-4). However, God is always the same in some sense (Heb 13:8).

Therefore, based on multiple lines of evidence, the threat in Gen 2:18-19 is best seen as a conditional threat of physical death from the temple garden leader, which the leader later changes his mind about. This poses no threat to the doctrine of immutability. 

Genesis 3:22-23 

It is written 

And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 

Here again, historical context can help us here. In the epic of Gilgamesh, “the quest for immortality is absurd, portrayed as a kind of morbid insanity” (Walton, 2023, p. 169). Some have said that the first humans were immortal but became mortal after eating the fruit. Then, Adam and Eve are banished from the garden so they do not become immortal again. Wells (2020) argues against this assertion based on 

the fact that similar vignettes in the Mesopotamian myths concerning Gilgamesh and Adapa presume human mortality and offer their protagonists the chance to gain immortality, not lose it; and the lack of any explicit pronouncement in the text that the story serves as an etiology for human mortality. (p. 645) 

This passage agrees with the historical context, a vital component of adequate biblical interpretation (Grasping God's Word, 2020). There would be no use for the Tree of Life if humans were created inherently immortal. Kruse (2013), who holds to the physical death interpretation of Romans 5:12, still states, “As far as we can tell from Scripture, Adam was created as a mortal being, with a human life-cycle which.. would have begun and ended…” (p. 243). 

Comments on Historical Theology 

This section aims to ground my main assertions regarding death and mortality in the Christian tradition. I added this to the article because, despite grounding my views in the text, people will say that if your proposals are against thousands of years of orthodoxy, then something is awry. I will challenge this by showing that my thesis (death and mortality were part of the pre-fall reality) is an ancient belief. 

Human Mortality 

The idea of humans being mortal, even dying before the fall, is found in church history. However, it is relevant to note that not everyone who believed humanity was mortal believed humans passed away before the fall. According to Danut (2015), “St. Irenaeus, St. Athanasius, and St. Gregory of Nyssa; promoted the biblical concept of humanity… as having an end and yet being destined to live eternally” (para. 5). According to Bradshaw (1998) Augustine, Clement of Alexandria, an others affirmed the mortality of humans before the fall. 

Later on, John Calvin thought that “Adam’s sin caused the abrupt painful death… if Adam had not sinned, a more gentle kind of physical death or “passing” from life into life would have occurred” (Biologos, 2024, para. 5). 

Calvin explicitly endorses the idea that Adam may have died pre-fall, just a nice kind of death. At present, Dr. Middleton (2018) discusses the views of J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien is the famed Christian author of the Lord of the Rings. Middleton comments on the lore of LOTR, stating, “...Tolkien has God (Ilúvatar) give… the gift of mortality to humans… the trouble is that the devil (Melkor) corrupted death. Tolkien is deeply biblical here” (Section: The sting of death is sin). 

Animal Mortality 

Augustine, Basil the Great, and Ambrose affirm the goodness of animal death (Gavin, 2023). They believed this is how God set up the world and animal death happened pre-fall and post-fall. According to Thomas Aquinas, “the nature of animals was not changed by man’s sin” (Part 1, Question 93, Article 1). According to him, it is from the Bible and reason that one concludes that animal death occurred before the fall (St Paul Center, 2024). 

In more contemporary times, Dr. Wile (2009) notes, “...orthodox theologians like Normal Geisler, Gleason Archer, and Walter Kaiser all accept the idea that there could have been animal death before the Fall” (para. 26). Dr. Middleton (2014) reviewing Osborn's book “death before the fall” notes the language of animal death in the book of Job. He concludes, “Yet Osborn is right in emphasizing that God is here delighting in animal ferocity” (p. 526). 

Implications

I will now discuss the implications of the present analysis. I noted above that Christian Ecology should not be troubled. Dr. E (2013) reminds us the Hebrew word kabash translated as subdue, “does not by itself have a negative connotation. Force is appropriate when wielded by the "right" people” (P. 201). A good ruler does what is right, as it is written, “May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice!” (Ps 72:2). If humanity is to be righteous rulers of Creation, then humanity must use the virtues. Humanity has to be the right kind of people to wield force appropriately. Unfortunately, humanity collectively is not (Rom 3:23-24). Thus, Jesus comes to rid us of sin and help us to become righteous (2 Cor 5:21). 

What exactly were the actions humans were supposed to take in Gen 1:26-30? Dr. Ee (2013) has argued that humans exerting control over animals implies permission to eat meat. There is no restraint on what humans can do with animals save for virtue. Fiddes (1991) notes the symbolism of eating meat when he states, “We position ourselves above animals in general by eating meat, and above other carnivores by cooking it. Raw meat is bestial and cooking sets us apart" (p. 89). Thus, the subduing and ruling of humanity is a virtuous one whereby the killing and eating of animals is implicit and demonstrates a fulfillment of the command of God. The Christian who cares about environmental or animal issues does not have to worry unless one expostulates Christian ethical veganism. Humanity must take care of Creation. 

An important implication is how Christians understand Romans 5 and 1 Cor 15. These texts affirm that sin and death came through Adam. However, what I have argued here conflicts with that notion. In my next article, I propose that these passages fit very well with the reading of Genesis and the historical theology discussed here.

Speaking of church history, the claim that the thesis position is heterodox (or heretical) because it does not align with church tradition on death and mortality is false. Much of church history has affirmed the possibility (and reality) of death and mortality before the fall. A Christian theistic evolutionist fits with Christian tradition on this issue. As with many things in church history, a customary or widespread belief does not make that belief a fact or universal among our ancestors. 

Conclusion 

Genesis one through three affirms an indispensable reality. Death and mortality are fundamental to creatures who need something outside themselves to become immortal. That is the part where Adam and Eve failed, and this is where Christ succeeds. Christ comes to be the tree of life for us and the new Adam who gives us access to physical immortality, as it is written, “...whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16, NIV).

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