James Nisbet Commentary - Genesis 2:17 - 2:17

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James Nisbet Commentary - Genesis 2:17 - 2:17


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

THE ONE FORBIDDEN THING

‘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.’

Gen_2:17

These words comprehend the whole of humanity in their application; every man and woman that ever has existed or shall exist on the face of the earth. This was not a positive law, but a negative one; the law of which Adam and Eve were transgressors was a prohibition, and to that prohibition was attached a penalty.

I. Look first at the prohibition.—‘Thou shalt not eat of it.’ It is perfectly obvious, from God’s character and conduct with man up to this time, that the intention of this prohibition was somehow to confer a great benefit on man himself; otherwise, why should God have given the prohibition? In the case of all perfect beings a test is necessary if they are to attain the highest possible state of perfection. This test was put before Adam and Eve, and the prohibition was enforced and was in order to that result.

II. Look next at the penalty.—‘In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’ (1) We must determine death by the nature of the subject to which it is applicable. Death is not necessarily the mere cessation of existence. Man’s life is physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual; death is the converse of life in regard to each of these particulars. Life implies the giving up of the whole man to God; death is exactly the reverse, it is the man losing all this—becoming dead, as we read, ‘in trespasses and sins.’ (2) It is said, ‘In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’ Adam and Eve died by becoming subject unto death. The elements of mortality were introduced, and they died spiritually by being estranged from God. In view of the redemption, in view of that Lamb who should come to die for man’s sins, the curse was thrown into abeyance, the execution was necessarily deferred. It was deferred in order that an opportunity might be given to man to become acquainted with Christ, and that Christ might accomplish the work of redemption.

—
Rev. C. Molyneux.

Illustration

‘The savage condition is not the first state of man, but only a lapsed condition. It presupposes a previous civilization from which he has fallen. The Bible tells us—and the evidences of geology corroborate its truth—that man was not ushered into the world until it had been thoroughly prepared for his reception: stocked with materials for food, clothing, and fuel, and all beautiful things necessary for the fullest and highest life of a being with such capacities and wants. It was in the garden of Eden, the most select and fertile spot of nature, that he was placed, in the midst of all that was good for food and pleasant to the eye; and there the beauty of the world was an outward reflection of the beauty of his mind and character—there he was capable of enjoying the uses and beauties of nature, of interpreting its spiritual analogies, and dressing and keeping it. It was God that did this for him. Left to himself and to nature, man could never have risen from the savage state to the condition of a civilised being; for his inherent powers are not self-acting or self-evolving; they require to be exercised and developed by a power beyond himself and outside of nature. There is no case on record of savages civilising themselves. Their life is as stereotyped as that of the brutes; they are to this day what they were a thousand years ago; and had the first man been created a savage, he could never of himself have taken the first step of the upward course.’