Dr. Dylan Johnson

But this affirmative, you will surely die.

And then of course, as I mentioned earlier, what the snake says is, no, if you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will surely not die.

Now they can't both be telling the truth, except they are.

And here's, and I think, and this is still a matter of debate, and I think it has to do with timing.

So what obviously doesn't happen is that

The woman and the man who eat from the tree of knowledge, good and evil, don't die immediately.

So it's not a Snow White scenario here with the poison apple.

They do not die immediately, but they do die eventually because they are mortal.

The snake, I think, is channeling that immediacy, saying, if you eat from it right now, you won't die.

It's not a poisoned apple.

You will gain consciousness.

So everything the snake says is true.

But God is also telling the truth that if you eat from that,

you will eventually die because you will be banished from this garden.

So the interpretation is God's sentence there is not saying, I'm going to execute you, but rather you will lose out on this chance for immortality, much like Adapa in the Southwind, to miss out on that chance for immortality.

Because once they're banished from Eden...

There's never again a chance to eat from the fruit of eternal life.

And I should also cycle back to Gilgamesh again here.

Gilgamesh also lost that on a chance for eternal life too.

It's fragmentary, but at the end of that epic, he gains a plant.