death in the garden

Discussion about the Hebrew Bible, Septuagint, pseudepigrapha, Philo, Josephus, Talmud, Dead Sea Scrolls, archaeology, etc.
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moses
Posts: 60
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2017 1:34 am

death in the garden

Post by moses »

i make this comment because i read something on reddit academic biblical studies.

in the adam and eve story, God told Adam to have control over the animals.

plant life was being killed because God said,
I have given every green plant for food
genesis 1:28 :

I. [רָדָה] verb have dominion, rule, dominate (Late Hebrew רָדָה, ᵑ7Jon רָדָא, chastise; Arabic tread, trample; Syriac chastise, also (and so Assyrian radû) go, flow); —


did the author think that even animals were KILLED in the garden? if yes , then does this mean that death existed in the garden before Adam eat from the tree?
Secret Alias
Posts: 18362
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:47 am

Re: death in the garden

Post by Secret Alias »

I don't think that eating plants was understood to constitute any sort of death.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
semiopen
Posts: 471
Joined: Sat Mar 08, 2014 6:27 pm

Re: death in the garden

Post by semiopen »

I don't understand the Garden reference in the OP, but it must be nice to be on first name terms with it. This reminded me of [wiki]Woodstock_(song)[/wiki]
The lyrics tell a story about a spiritual journey to Max Yasgur's farm, the place of the festival, and make prominent use of sacred imagery, comparing the festival site with the Garden of Eden ("and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden").
There is a view that meat wasn't eaten before the flood.

A VEGETARIAN VIEW OF THE TORAH - https://www.jewishveg.org/schwartz/view-torah.html

seems like a good discussion about this.

Genesis 1:29-30 TNK
29 God said, "See, I give you every seed-bearing plant that is upon all the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit; they shall be yours for food.
30 And to all the animals on land, to all the birds of the sky, and to everything that creeps on earth, in which there is the breath of life, I give all the green plants for food." And it was so.
After the flood this changes -
Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat; as with the green grasses, I give you all these. (Gen. 9:3 TNK)
As the link points out, all animals were vegetarians before the flood. This might not be historically accurate.
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