Hi Leah! I have what is probably a stupid question if you feel like answering it? (If not, that’s alright too!)

Like a lot of people, I was brought up to believe in a very literal interpretation of the book of Genesis, told that evolution was a worldly lie, etc., but I’ve grown much more curious and open minded about other views in recent years. So my understanding was that there was no such thing as death until Adam and Eve’s sin? And I was wondering if/how evolution and natural selection and everything would all work if death had not yet entered the world?

I have a feeling this is probably a very common question, and certainly something I heard a lot growing up, but framed less like a genuine question and more as a sort of well-obviously-a-real-Christian-can’t-believe-in-evolution statement. (Which is such nonsense! There are so many Christians who believe in evolution!) But I genuinely would like to know because I’m sure there’s a good answer!

Hey Juliana! Not a stupid question at all, my goodness. People dedicate whole lives and careers to considering these things and I've seen a pretty wide range of views on the subject, so I don't have a simple answer for you. That said, I do think there are good answers to be had and I'd love to opine as best I can!

So it's my understanding that the Hebrew word for death, mût, can refer to physical death and/or spiritual death (ie being alienated or cut off from God), depending on context. A really great example of where it's obviously used for the latter is Ezekiel 18, because the whole passage is a warning about spiritual death. I've excerpted verses 20-24 below with some help from Blue Letter Bible:

The soul who sins shall die (mût). The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die (mût). None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live.  Have I any pleasure in the death (mût) of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die (mût).

I think it's obvious to any orthodox Christian (or heck, probably plenty of secular folks too) that this passage isn't talking about physical death, but about the death of a person's soul/the second death. This same word, mût, is also the word that's used in Genesis 2 and 3.

After Adam and Eve sin, they feel shame, try to hide from God, and try to avoid taking responsibility for what they've done. They realize their nakedness. They are alienated from God and from one another: something within their souls is broken and is now barreling straight towards complete separation from God in a novel way. Since spiritual death is a legitimate sense of the word die in Hebrew, we can actually read the passage pretty much at face value and see that this alienation between man and God is death coming into the world.

So that's that then, right? The curse is purely spiritual in nature and physical death has always been perfectly natural?

Yeah, no. I mean, clearly not, right? Jesus didn't just conquer spiritual death (though He very much did that), he also physically resurrected in the body. This is a pretty big deal. Throughout Scripture, physical death is treated as something for which we were not made: we do not welcome it and we are right to grieve it. We can learn the spiritual skills to die well, but death is still portrayed as the enemy. It will not exist in eternity.

However, I do think that this spiritual aspect makes it pretty clear that the death that came about as a consequence of the fall is specific to spiritual beings (ie humans with souls). Thus, I don't think there's any problem with acknowledging that purely physical deaths of animals without the Imago Dei occurred routinely prior to the fall.

(Also, to engage with YE creationism on its own terms for a moment: why would God create predators with claws and teeth and carnivorous metabolisms if they were not meant to kill other animals?)

But we are still left with the fact that physical death is an enemy, unnatural to the human condition, and furthermore that it is tightly bound up with spiritual death (no Platonic dualism here). Thus, the death that entered the world when Adam and Eve sinned must be both physical and spiritual in nature.

To the remaining question of how, exactly, that squares, I haven't got a good theological answer. This is as far as my current research and understanding can take me; from here, I can only share my own personal speculation.

I don't think it's a stretch to say that there is something inherently eternal in the image of God, and thus in the human soul. For my requisite Lewis quote, "You have never talked to a mere mortal." I speculate that when God breathed into Adam's lungs and endowed him with the Divine Image, whether in Mesopotamia or in Africa, Adam really was physically immortal, regardless of the fact that his ancestors had been dying for millennia. The Divine image is not one created for physical death, even when the material from which its bearers are sculpted has hitherto been mortal and fleeting.

So in summary, I think that the death that enters the world in Genesis 2-3 is both spiritual and physical in nature, and thus it is specific to spiritual beings. I draw this view from a number sources, including MDivs I know personally, but a good starting point is C. John Collins, the Old Testament theologian that I referenced in my other Adam and Eve post, if you're interested in learning more. I also tentatively speculate that the Divine Image with which God endowed Adam and Eve came with a physical immortality that they lost as a result of the Fall. That part is my own gloss.

Like I said before, I'm still young and I'm definitely not a theologian. Evolutionary biology is my academic wheelhouse much moreso than Adam and Eve. Like you, I'd like to keep learning. Ask me again in thirty years ;)