Genesis - Eden: Was There Punishment for Disobeying the Lord God? If so, What Was It?

Question

What was punishment for Adam, Eve, and the serpent for disobeying the Lord God's order to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Neither Adam or Eve died and their disposition remained unchanged - man "taking care" or "working" the earth, woman experiencing pain in childbearing, and the serpent still slithers. What's the punishment? Nobody died.

Genesis 2:15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals.

Genesis 3:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Genesis 3:14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this ... You will crawl on your belly ... all the days of your life."

Genesis 3:16 To the woman he said, "I will make your pains in childbearing very severe"

Genesis 3:17 [To man he said] through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.

Answer 1

Where do you get from that the things you mention were also like that before the fall?

• There is no mention of giving birth being painful in Eden.
• The working and taking care of the garden (2:15) is more positive than the toil in 3:17.
• There is also the enmity between men and snakes (3:15).
• Lastly, Adam and Eve did die - just not directly.

Answer 2

The penalty for disobedience of the command to not eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil was death which was effected by denying the human race access to the fruit of the trees of life. Man was already mortal but had the opportunity to live forever by eating said fruit.

People are often confused by the delay between when they ate the fruit and when they actually went belly up. This is because the KJV has "in the day that you eat... you will surely die". However, "in the day" simply means "when". We know the sky-land biodome was fashioned in 6 days and yet the scriptures speak of "in the day when the LORD made the heavens".

"You shall surely die", which is literally, "dying you shall die" is idiomatic for "you will certainly die".

Paul, comparing sin to a heartless slave-master who pays his slaves in nothing but wages of death, as if death came in installments and eventually ends in annihilation. See Romans 6:23.