God told Adam and Eve that the day they disobeyed in the garden they would die.
The day Adam and Eve disobeyed they did not literally die, they were exiled from the Garden.
When God formed Israel out of Egypt into a nation he had them build what was obviously a symbolic garden.
When Israel sinned, by going after other gods, they were sent into exile and the garden/temple was destroyed
Being brought back into the Land from exile was prophesied as resurrection from death (Isaiah 26; Ezekiel 37)
When Jesus was condemned, it was to die under the domination of a foreign power; even the tomb was marked out as foreign territory by the imperial seal. Though in Jerusalem, Jesus death and burial were plainly exile.
There is no exegetically responsible way to deny that the sentence imposed by God in the Garden (Genesis 3) or the exile of Israel from the Land was anything less than a punshment for sin.
The return from exile is a revelation of the forgiveness of sins (Isaiah 40).
Jesus undergoing “exile” cannot be played off against Jesus suffering the penalty that we deserved.
Jesus’ condemnation and death were punishment for sin–this is not some “model” of anything. It is not a Roman or Feudal culture imposed on anything. It is the truth.
Incidentally, Christus Victor is also true. So what? It contradicts nothing in 1-10.
2 thoughts on “Quickie observations on exile, death, curse, punishment, and resurrection”
Forsooth! Just because Adam and Eve only died spiritually — being separated from God — does not mean that they did not die “literally.” Unless you think that “literally” only means “physically.”
“Do not fear those who can kill the body, rather fear him who has the power to cast into hell.”
I think that a spiritual death can be quite literal; more deathly than physical death.
True. And, actually, I think my intent was to say the relational death seen in geographical exile was the death God was promising (biological death being a further development of it…).
It is hard to express all that and stay in bullet points.
Forsooth! Just because Adam and Eve only died spiritually — being separated from God — does not mean that they did not die “literally.” Unless you think that “literally” only means “physically.”
“Do not fear those who can kill the body, rather fear him who has the power to cast into hell.”
I think that a spiritual death can be quite literal; more deathly than physical death.
True. And, actually, I think my intent was to say the relational death seen in geographical exile was the death God was promising (biological death being a further development of it…).
It is hard to express all that and stay in bullet points.