Life and Death in the Garden

We know there was Life, but was there death in the garden? Did God create a system of decay within nature that Adam was created into? God looked at all He had created and declared, "It is good'. I am sure that there is no death in Heaven and since death is the 'last enemy' to be destroyed, I think it reasonable to suggest that there was no death in Eden before the Fall, and that death began at the moment of disobedience and sin. The Scriptures present the Garden as a place of perfect life, where Adam and Eve lived in harmony with God, each other, and creation. There is no direct mention of death existing in Eden before the Fall. As God created life in a perfect state, it stands to reason that the absence of sin meant there was no death or decay.

Death and the Introduction of Time

The idea of time is certainly linked to the concept of death in the Scriptures. The Apostle Paul in Romans 5:12 states, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned,” which suggests that death was a consequence of sin entering the world. Prior to that, the world was not subject to decay or death. Thus, Adam and Eve, as perfect and sinless beings, would not have had a concept of time as we understand it. Time is often perceived as a measure of change, and without decay or the passage of time, there would have been no need to track it. There was no aging, no death, no weariness to mark the passage of days. So Adam was not keeping track of birthdays in the garden. There was no consciousness of time as we understand it today.

This idea of a timeless existence is a rich theological reflection. They were created for eternal fellowship with God, and their experience was beyond the constraints of what we now experience as time.

The Plural "Deaths" in God's Warning

The Hebrew phrase in Genesis 2:17, when God speaks to Adam about eating from the tree, uses a plural form of "death." The verse says:

"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" (Genesis 2:17, KJV).

In Hebrew, the word for “die” here is “muth” (מוּת), and the form used is a plural: “moth temuthun” (מות תמותון), which literally translates to "dying you shall die" or “you shall die the deaths.” This is a significant detail. Many scholars interpret the plural form of "death" as indicating multiple consequences for disobedience, not just physical death but also spiritual and relational death.

• Spiritual Death: This refers to the immediate separation from God. In the moment they ate the fruit, Adam and Eve experienced a spiritual death—they were cut off from the fullness of God's presence and fellowship. Their relationship with God was broken, and this was the most immediate and profound consequence. The glory of God departed. The Anointing lifted. They were naked and exposed to the world. To the elements. They were ashamed.

• Physical Death: The eventual physical death of Adam and Eve, which would begin their aging process, was the next consequence. Though they didn’t immediately drop dead, the curse of physical death was now set in motion. This physical decay would continue until their bodies deteriorated and they physically died. For Adam this process would take 930 years. As Adam and Eve were given dominion over the earth, their sin introduced corruption and decay into the world. This is echoed in Romans 8:20-22, which speaks of the creation itself groaning and waiting for redemption. The earth, like humanity, was now subject to death, decay, and suffering.

• The Second Death: Finally, what the Bible calls the second death is the permanent separation from God for eternity. As Adam and Eve were separated from the nature and Spirit of God in the garden due to sin, Christ has come to reunite us with our Father so that once again we can be as one. For those who reject God from their lives, who refuse the anointment of the actions of Jesus to pay for our sin there remains a consequence for the choice they make. This is the second death. To forever be separated from God. This is the reason for hell. It is an eternal prison for outlaw spirits - created for the devil - not us. Created as a place to hold spirits that by their very nature are eternal. Thus the need for an eternal prison. By refusing to welcome Jesus into the home of our hearts, God will honor our choice and allow us to live eternally without His presence.

Time as a Consequence of Sin

Time as we understand time, began at the Fall. It fits within the idea that death introduced the passage of time as we know it. Time is often measured by change and decay, and since time began to have its power only once decay started to affect the created order, we could consider time a consequence of death entering the world.

In Eden, there was no need to measure time, because there was no change or death. However, after sin, the physical decay and eventual death of bodies introduced the need to measure days, seasons, and years. The entire cosmic order was now subject to decay (Romans 8:20–22). Thus, time became necessary as a way to mark the aging of bodies, the fading of creation, and the passing of life towards its inevitable end.

Conclusion

It’s entirely reasonable, both biblically and philosophically, to consider that before the Fall, there was no death, no time, and no decay. Death and time entered the world as part of the consequences of sin.

The use of the plural "deaths" in God’s warning—spiritual death, physical death, and the death of creation—points to the multi-dimensional impact of sin. The entrance of sin didn't just cause the death of man but the death of all things, ushering in the experience of time as we understand it today, which is fundamentally linked to our mortality.

In light of that, Adam and Eve's experience of time after the Fall became an entirely new and tragic reality. This is painfully evident in the naming of Adam's first grandson Enosh – the grandchild of Adam in the line of Christ, born to Seth who was the replacement of the murdered Abel. Adam was the eternal man, holding in his hands a newborn baby, just breathing its first breaths.

Now Adam, with tears in his eyes, looks down and names this child– ‘mortal’ – meaning ‘doomed to die’.

This name traces back to the father of mankind—Adam—who was originally destined to raise God’s children in paradise, in a world untouched by death. He was to nurture a family that would walk intimately with their Creator. Yet here stands a haunting image: Adam, cradling a newborn child, witnessing life’s first breath even as the shadow of death lingers. In his hands lies the consequence of the fall. Eve, rightly called the mother of all living, fulfills a prophetic role—like so many names in Scripture. Perhaps, in that moment, Adam searches the infant’s face for the long-awaited promise—the One who would break the curse and restore life. The weight of this hope and sorrow rests heavy upon his shoulders.

They would now live out their days in a world where everything decayed, and every moment moved them closer to death—the clock began to tick. But, in the midst of this, the promise of redemption also began to unfold.

By M. Joseph Hutzler,

Eschatologist