The question of whether or not the snake tells the truth in Genesis 2 is an equivalent question of whether or not God tells the truth when he says "on the day that you eat from [the Tree of Knowing], you must die, yes, die" (Gen 2:17). As the story is told, God does not strike the humans dead the day they eat from the tree, so of course the literal reading of the statement is false.
What is more interesting to consider is if God ever meant his statement. Did God really ever intend for humans to never taste the tree of knowledge and live forever? According to the repetition in Genesis 1 of "after their kind" (Gen 2:12, 24, 25) when speaking of the creatures of the earth, God intended for his earth to be self sustaining perpetuating. This fact in itself embodies reproduction and death, hand in hand, to create generations. It seems as though god never had immortality in the cards for his creatures.
Another thing in the text that I noticed that supports this claim is the way the punishments sound when god orates them. I get the feeling when i read the story that god has already thought about his course of action. They are listed so methodically and bluntly that it seems as if god is reading off a laundry list, as if he knew that humans would not be able to resist the forbidden fruit. There is no thinking, or deliberation (perhaps God just doesnt need any) between the confession and the punishment. It seems to me as if god was waiting for this to happen. The switch from innocently walking around in the garden to spewing out punishments is too quick for me to believe god intended for the fruit never to be eaten.
From another light, taking the story as an etiology to explain the nature of human knowledge, would a story really be created to explain our knowledge where God wished us to have none?
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"The question of whether or not the snake tells the truth in Genesis 2 is an equivalent question of whether or not God tells the truth when he says "on the day that you eat from [the Tree of Knowing], you must die, yes, die" (Gen 2:17). As the story is told, God does not strike the humans dead the day they eat from the tree, so of course the literal reading of the statement is false."
Not exactly. It's often argued that they lost their creational immortality.
"What is more interesting to consider is if God ever meant his statement. Did God really ever intend for humans to never taste the tree of knowledge and live forever? According to the repetition in Genesis 1 of "after their kind" (Gen 2:12, 24, 25) when speaking of the creatures of the earth, God intended for his earth to be self sustaining perpetuating. This fact in itself embodies reproduction and death, hand in hand, to create generations. It seems as though god never had immortality in the cards for his creatures."
The prohibition is clearly meant as a dire warning.
Yes, Gen 1 implies generations, but it is strictly forbidden in this class to use anything from Gen 1 to interpret Gen 2-3!
"Another thing in the text that I noticed that supports this claim is the way the punishments sound when god orates them. I get the feeling when i read the story that god has already thought about his course of action. They are listed so methodically and bluntly that it seems as if god is reading off a laundry list, as if he knew that humans would not be able to resist the forbidden fruit. There is no thinking, or deliberation (perhaps God just doesnt need any) between the confession and the punishment. It seems to me as if god was waiting for this to happen. The switch from innocently walking around in the garden to spewing out punishments is too quick for me to believe god intended for the fruit never to be eaten."
Nice observation but there's another way to look at it. Because the story is an etiology of the real human condition, the author had that 'laundry list' ready to go.
"From another light, taking the story as an etiology to explain the nature of human knowledge, would a story really be created to explain our knowledge where God wished us to have none?"
That depends on why God warned against gaining this knowledge, and what it means to have it.
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