The infinitive absolute verb pairing explained.
Gen 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.
When speaking to a human man and telling him that in the day he sins he will suffer a punishment could only be understood as a literal day wherein he would receive that punishment. The word day means warm, which obviously is a reference to the daylight part of day so this punishment did not occur at night. The word can mean longer than a day in a figurative sense but the context of the passage shows a literal use.
Adam sinned and not long after he died. It simply wasn't a physical death but the type of death any sinless person suffers when they sin for the first time. Sin is a moral/spiritual concept, and the death it brings to a person is spiritual.
Gen 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.
It is claimed by some that this actually means "dying thou shalt die" and is conveying the meaning of "a continued action over a long period of time" meaning Adam began to physically age when he sinned and eventually would die but is this actually an accurate translation and interpretation? No. Allow me to explain:
Gen 2:17 But of the treeH4480 H6086 of the knowledgeH1847 of goodH2896 and evil,H7451 thou shalt notH3808 eatH398 ofH4480 it: forH3588 in the dayH3117 that thou eatestH398 thereofH4480 thou shalt surely
die.H4191 H4191
Here we see the word "die" repeated twice, H4191 H4191.
One of the verbs will be written in a different verbal form than the other. That literally means one will have an extra hebrew letter/character despite being the same exact word. That spelling difference and which order the two verbs appear can alter the meaning of the verbs. One verb will be written in the infinitive absolute form. The other verb will be written in the conjugated/inflected form which has the extra letter/character. What the pair of verbs actually mean is based on which form appears first and which is second:
http://kukis.org/Languages/Hebrew4Dummies.pdf
The infinitive absolute has four uses: when found alone, it sometimes acts as an English gerund, so that we may add ING to the end of the verb;
This isn't relative because this is only when the verb is alone and not in a pair as it is in Gen 2:17.
When found directly before it's verbal cognate, it serves to intensify or strengthen the action or the meaning of the verb which follows
This is when the infinitive absolute form appears first or before the conjugated/inflected form.
When it follows it's cognate verb, it emphasizes the duration or the continuation of the verbal idea.
This is when the the conjugated/inflected verb form appears first or before infinitive absolute verb form.
So back to the verse and the pair of verbs:
Gen 2:17 But of the treeH4480 H6086 of the knowledgeH1847 of goodH2896 and evil,H7451 thou shalt notH3808 eatH398 ofH4480 it: forH3588 in the dayH3117 that thou eatestH398 thereofH4480 thou shalt surely
die.H4191 H4191
Here we see the word "die" repeated twice, H4191 H4191 or using an english transliteration, "muth t'muth". "muth" is the infinitive absolute verb and "t'muth" is the conjugated/inflected verb.
So in Gen 2:17 is the first verb in the "infinitive absolute form" or is the first verb in the "conjugated/inflected form"?
In that verse the first verb is in the "infinitive absolute form" so it appears first:
muth t'muth, so this meaning is the correct one:
When found directly before it's verbal cognate, it serves to intensify or strengthen the action or the meaning of the verb which follows
I will now prove that the infinitive absolute verb does appear first:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Gesenius'_Hebrew_Grammar/113._The_Infinitive_Absolute
113n (a) The infinitive absolute used before the verb to strengthen the verbal idea, i.e. to emphasize in this way either the certainty (especially in the case of threats) or the forcibleness and completeness of an occurrence. In English, such an infinitive is mostly expressed by a corresponding adverb, but sometimes merely by putting greater stress on the verb; e.g. Gen 2:17 ???? ???????? thou shalt surely die,
Confirmation it does indeed come first proving which meaning it conveys.
"dying thou shalt die" interpreted to mean "a continued action over a long period of time" and that Adam began to physically age when he sinned and eventually would die is an incorrect interpretation in Gen 2:17. Those that promote this understanding do not properly understand the "infinitive absolute verb pairing" because they are ignorant of the order of the verb forms involved and which meaning is conveyed by their order.
A translation hard to misunderstand would be either "a death thou shalt die" or how it's rendered in the KJV "thou shalt surely die" which shows how the infinitive absolute verb form intensifies or strengthens the meaning of the verb "die". "dying thou shalt die" does not convey a "continued action over a long period of time" though it is often understood in that errant way. Using the verb "dying" in that verse suggests the wrong meaning as if Adam just began the process of dying over time which did not start happening as soon as he sinned. The first verb is supposed to intensify or strengthen the action or the meaning of the second verb yet "dying thou shalt die" fails to convey that properly which leads to many false understandings of this verse. It is a very poor way to translate the Hebrew. "thou shalt surely die" properly conveys the meaning of the verb pairing which "intensifies or strengthens the action or the meaning of the verb" that follows the infinitive absolute verb.
Gesenius' Hebrew Grammer Lexicon:
http://www.studylight.org/lexicons/gesenius/view.cgi?n=113
(a) The infinitive absolute used before the verb to strengthen the verbal idea, i.e. to emphasize in this way either the certainty (especially in the case of threats) or the forcibleness and completeness of an occurrence. In English, such an infinitive is mostly expressed by a corresponding adverb, but sometimes merely by putting greater stress on the verb; e.g. Genesis 2:17 "mut t'mut" thou shalt surely die
Note, again, that there is only one meaning when the infinitive absolute verb is first and the conjugated/inflected verb is second; "to strengthen the verbal idea". No other meaning can be attached yet you will find all kinds of articles and forum posts which do exactly that due to ignorance of the true meaning of the infinitive absolute/inflected verb pairing. Some will insist it can have both meanings but that is quite untrue!
So, Adam did NOT start to age and slowly die over a period of time when he sinned. The "infinitive absolute form" used in Gen 2:17 proves that theory to be incorrect. The death he experienced was completed at that very day he sinned just as God promised. Since he was still physically alive the only completed death he experienced that day can only be a spiritual/figurative death. He was not "dying" but "died". The Hebrew demands that meaning. He was born dying because he was created a mortal human being. Aging and physically dying was unrelated to his sin.
Simplified version:
Gen 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.
When the Hebrew uses the same verb twice in a row one of the words will be spelled slightly different. One will be the infinitive absolute verb and the other is called the conjugated/inflected verb.
They can mean two different things but not both at the same time:
1. "a continued action over a long period of time" meaning death is a long process because the verb means death.
OR
2. "a future completed death spoken in an emphatic way" re-enforcing the fact that he would definitely/surely die the day he sinned.
It all depends on if the infinitive absolute verb is first and the conjugated/inflected verb is last, or vice versa.
In the manuscripts the the infinitive absolute verb is first and the conjugated/inflected verb is last so the meaning of the verb is "a future completed death spoken in an emphatic way" and NOT "a continued action over a long period of time" meaning death is a long process.
In order for the verb to mean "a continued action over a long period of time" meaning death is a long process it would have to have been the conjugated/inflected verb first and the infinitive absolute verb last but that is not how it appears in the manuscripts.
When it comes second as here: "t'muth muth" then it can only mean "a continued action over a long period of time" meaning death is a long process because the verb means death.
When the infinitive absolute verb comes first as it does here: "muth t'muth" it can only mean "a future completed death spoken in an emphatic way" and that is the order of the verb pairing in Gen 2:17.
I should explain what I mean by, "a future
completed death spoken in an emphatic way" because I am aware the conjugated/inflected verb is in the imperfect which means an incompleted action. God spoke these words
before Adam sinned which is why the death is not a completed action yet when God spoke those words but the use of the infinitive absolute verb pairing supports the fact that Adam would indeed die the day he sinned as opposed to an incomplete death ie: begin to die. God said he would die the day he sinned and he definitely did. God simply never explained what type of death it would be.
1
