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.
Since Adam did not die physically that day, it has been alleged that this is a mistake in the Bible. [However], Adam did die that day. Death means separation, and there are three deaths spoken of in Scripture. There is spiritual death, which is [the initial] separation from God. There is physical death, which is separation of the spirit from the body. And there is eternal death, which is eternal separation from God and punishment in the lake of fire. Adam died spiritually the very day that he disobeyed God. His spirit died and he became separated from God (“dead in trespasses and sins,” Ephesians 2:1), and every individual who is born into the world is born in this frightful condition. This is why Jesus said that we must be born again in order to be saved (John 3:3). We must be born spiritually and receive spiritual life from God.
It is true that Adam and Eve didn’t die the exact day they ate the fruit (Genesis 5:4–5) as some seem to think Genesis 2:17 implies. So, the options are either God was in error or man’s interpretation is in error. But God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18), so then fallible humans must be making the mistake.
[In the Hebrew the words used at the end of verse 17 are] muwth—muwth (die die) with two different verb tenses (dying and die), which can be translated as “surely die” or literally as “dying you shall die,” indicating the beginning of dying—an ingressive sense—and finally culminating with death. At the point when they ate, Adam and Eve began to die and would return to dust (Genesis 3:19). If they were meant to die right then, God would have used muwth only once, as is used in the Hebrew to mean dead, died, or die, not beginning to die or surely die as die-die is used in Hebrew. Old Testament authors understood this and used the terms appropriately, but sometimes we lose a little during translation.
What Is Yom Referring To? With regards to the Hebrew word yom for day in Genesis 2:17, it refers directly to the following action—eating—not the latter “dying die.” For example Solomon used an almost identical construct in 1 Kings 2:37 when referring to Shimei:
1 Kings 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.
This uses yom (day) and the dual muwth just as Genesis 2:17 did. In Genesis 2:17, yom referred to the action (eating) in the same way that yom refers the action here (go out and cross over). In neither case do they mean that was the particular day they would die, but the particular day they did what they weren’t supposed to do. Solomon also understood that it would not be a death on that particular day, but that Shimei’s days were numbered from that point. In other words, their (Adam and Shimei) actions on that day were what gave them the final death sentence—it was coming, and they would surely die as a result of their actions. Therefore, the day in Genesis 2:17 was referring to when they ate (disobeyed), and not the day they died.
That ‘day’ that he ate of it could be a period of time, or the actual 24 hour day. His physical body would begin the dying process (lasting over 900 years to complete the process!), and spiritual died instantaneously, but would not be fully understood until either in Hell, or in Heaven (if saved).
