Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word

Genesis 2:17

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.

KJV

de ligno autem scientiæ boni et mali ne comedas : in quocumque enim die comederis ex eo, morte morieris.

Vulgate

ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ ξύλου τοῦ γινώσκειν καλὸν καὶ πονηρόν, οὐ φάγεσθε ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ· ᾗ δ’ ἂν ἡμέρᾳ φάγησθε ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ, θανάτῳ ἀποθανεῖσθε.

LXX

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.

ASV

וּ/מֵ/עֵ֗ץ הַ/דַּ֨עַת֙ ט֣וֹב וָ/רָ֔ע לֹ֥א תֹאכַ֖ל מִמֶּ֑/נּוּ כִּ֗י בְּ/י֛וֹם אֲכָלְ/ךָ֥ מִמֶּ֖/נּוּ מ֥וֹת תָּמֽוּת

Hebrew

Open in reader with connections →

In the original Hebrew

10 distinct Hebrew words appear in this verse.

דָֽעַת
d't
verb · 93×
הוּ
hv
verb · 834×
ט֣וֹב
tvb
verb · 562×
יּ֣וֹם
yvm
noun · 2285×
כִּֽי
ky
pronoun · 4439×
לֹ֣א
l'
proper_noun · 5171×
ם
m
verb · 811×
מִן
mn
preposition · 1223×
עֵ֣ץ
'ts
noun · 324×
רָ֑ע
r'
verb · 664×

Themes

Covenant

Historic Christian voices

23 passages from patristic writers, Reformers, and church catechisms citing this verse.

§376By the radiance of this grace all dimensions of man's life were confirmed. As long as he remained in the divine intimacy, man would not have to suffer or die.252 The inner harmony of the human person, the harmony between man and woman,253 and finally the harmony between the first couple and all creation, comprised the state called "original justice".
§396God created man in his image and established him in his friendship. A spiritual creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God. the prohibition against eating "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" spells this out: "for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die."276 The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil"277 symbolically evokes the insurm…
§400The harmony in which they had found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now destroyed: the control of the soul's spiritual faculties over the body is shattered; the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions, their relations henceforth marked by lust and domination.282 Harmony with creation is broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to man.283 Becau…
…and 2 more from this source.
1. Many of the more careless sort of persons, using the lovingkindness of God to increase the magnitude of their sins and the excess of their disregard, speak in this way, There is no hell, there is no future punishment, God forgives us all sins. To stop whose mouths a wise man says, Say not, His mercy is great, He will be pacified for the multitude of my sins; for mercy and wr…
City of God · 4 passages
Chapter 12.—What Death God Intended, When He Threatened Our First Parents with Death If They Should Disobey His Commandment. When, therefore, it is asked what death it was with which God threatened our first parents if they should transgress the commandment they had received from Him, and should fail to preserve their obedience,—whether it was the death of soul, or of body, or …
Chapter 15.—That Adam in His Sin Forsook God Ere God Forsook Him, and that His Falling Away From God Was the First Death of the Soul. It may perhaps be supposed that because God said, “Ye shall die the death,”595595 Gen. ii. 17. and not “deaths,” we should understand only that death which occurs when the soul is deserted by God, who is its life; for it was not deserted by God, …
Chapter 23.—What We are to Understand by the Animal and Spiritual Body; Or of Those Who Die in Adam, And of Those Who are Made Alive in Christ. For as those bodies of ours, that have a living soul, though not as yet a quickening spirit, are called soul-informed bodies, and yet are not souls but bodies, so also those bodies are called spiritual,—yet God forbid we should therefor…
…and 1 more from this source.
Theology of the Body · 4 passages
Analysis of the Biblical Account of Creation Last Wednesday we began this series of reflections on the reply Christ gave to his questioners on the subject of the unity and indissolubility of marriage. As we recall, the Pharisees who questioned him appealed to the Mosaic Law. However, Christ went back to the "beginning," quoting the words of Genesis. The "beginning" in this ca…
The Second Account of Creation: The Subjective Definition of Man With reference to Christ's words on the subject of marriage, in which he appealed to the "beginning," we directed our attention last week to the first account of man's creation in the first chapter of Genesis. Today we shall pass to the second account, which is frequently described as the "Yahwist," since it uses…
Man's Awareness of Being a Person In the preceding talk we began to analyze the meaning of man's original solitude. The Yahwist text gave us the starting point, in particular by the following words: "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him" (Gn 2:18). The analysis of the relative passages in the second chapter of Genesis has already br…
…and 1 more from this source.
The distance between God and the creature is so great that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of him as their blessedness and reward but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant. The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works, wh…
66. For if, as has been said, because of the resurrection from the dead He is called a beginning, and then a resurrection took place when He, bearing our flesh, had given Himself to death for us, it is evident that His words, 'He created me a beginning of ways,' is indicative not of His essence , but of His bodily presence. For to the body death was proper ; and in like manner …
If anyone does not confess that the first man, Adam, when he had transgressed the commandment of God in Paradise, immediately lost the holiness and justice wherein he had been constituted; and that he incurred, through the offense of that prevarication, the wrath and indignation of God, and consequently death, with which God had previously threatened him, and together with deat…
Q. According to God's righteous judgment we deserve punishment both in this world and forever after: how then can we escape this punishment and return to God's favor? A. God requires that his justice be satisfied. Therefore the claims of his justice must be paid in full, either by ourselves or another.
Man was created good and upright; for God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." However, man by voluntary transgression fell and thereby incurred not only physical death but also spiritual death, which is separation from God.
The tree of life represents wisdom (sophia), through which the soul attains immortality, while the tree of knowledge of good and evil represents the intermediate moral faculty that can lead either to virtue or to vice. Philo reads these not as literal trees in a garden but as powers within the human soul. To eat of the tree of life is to live by divine Wisdom; to eat of the tre…

Cross-references

  • 1Cor 15:22 — For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
  • 1Cor 15:22 — For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
  • 1Cor 15:56 — The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
  • 1John 5:16 — If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for
  • 1Kgs 2:37 — For it shall be, that on the day thou goest out, and passest over the brook Kidron, thou shalt know for certain that thou shalt surely die: thy blood shall be upon thine own head.
  • 1Kgs 2:42 — And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Did I not make thee to swear by the LORD, and protested unto thee, saying, Know for a certain, on the day thou goest out, and walkest abroad
  • 1Sam 14:39 — For, as the LORD liveth, which saveth Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die. But there was not a man among all the people that answered him.
  • 1Sam 14:44 — And Saul answered, God do so and more also: for thou shalt surely die, Jonathan.
  • 1Sam 20:31 — For as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom. Wherefore now send and fetch him unto me, for he shall surely die.
  • 1Sam 22:16 — And the king said, Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou, and all thy father’s house.
  • 1Tim 5:6 — But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.
  • 2Kgs 1:4 — Now therefore thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed.
  • Col 2:13 — And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
  • Deut 27:26 — Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.
  • Deut 29:19 — And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thir
  • Deut 30:15 — See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
  • Deut 30:19 — I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
  • Eph 2:1 — And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
  • Eph 5:14 — Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
  • Ezek 3:18 — When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity
  • Ezek 3:18 — When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity
  • Ezek 18:4 — Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
  • Ezek 18:13 — Hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? he shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him.
  • Ezek 18:32 — For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.
  • Ezek 33:8 — When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thin
  • Ezek 33:14 — Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;
  • Gal 3:10 — For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
  • Gen 2:9 — And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evi
  • Gen 2:9 — And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evi
  • Gen 3:1 — Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
  • Gen 3:5 — For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
  • Gen 3:11 — And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
  • Gen 3:17 — And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sak
  • Gen 3:19 — In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
  • Gen 20:7 — Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are
  • Hos 13:1 — When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.
  • Jas 1:15 — Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
  • Jas 1:15 — Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
  • Jer 26:8 — Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying,
  • Num 26:65 — For the LORD had said of them, They shall surely die in the wilderness. And there was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.