Infinitive absolute and legal certainty in Genesis 2:17
An exercise asks students to translate Genesis 2:17b: בְּיוֹם אֲכָלְךָ מִמֶּנּוּ מוֹת תָּמוּת. One student renders 'in the day you eat from it, dying you will die' and argues that the Hebrew teaches a process of gradual death. Another renders 'you shall surely die' and argues that the construction only adds certainty. A third proposes 'you will certainly die' but worries that the English is too weak. The teacher provides the parse: מוֹת is an infinitive absolute of מות, and תָּמוּת is a Qal imperfect second masculine singular of the same root. The class is asked to decide which translation best captures the legal force of the prohibition without importing later doctrine.
1. Parse the two verb forms and explain the function of the infinitive absolute here.
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Parse. מוֹת is the infinitive absolute of the root מות, 'die'. תָּמוּת is Qal imperfect 2ms of the same root. Function. An infinitive absolute placed before a finite verb of the same root commonly intensifies or certifies the verbal idea: 'surely die', 'certainly die'. It does not create a second action or a separate tense. The literal English 'dying you will die' reproduces the Hebrew shape but is misleading if read as process. In a legal prohibition with a stated penalty, the natural force is certainty of judgment: 'you shall surely die'. A translation may preserve emphasis with 'certainly' or 'surely', but should not make the infinitive absolute carry a doctrinal theory of gradual death.
2. Evaluate the claim that the construction implies gradual rather than immediate death. What evidence within the verse supports or undermines it?
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The claim is not established by grammar. The infinitive absolute marks emphasis or certainty, not aspectual progression. The phrase בְּיוֹם, 'in the day', points toward a judicial consequence tied to the day of eating, which supports immediacy or at least decisive liability rather than a slow process. The gradual-death reading is usually inferred from the narrative fact that the man and woman do not physically die that same day; that is a narrative-theological problem, not a parsing datum. A careful answer should say: the Hebrew construction supports certainty; the apparent delay belongs to the story’s larger logic. Translate 'you shall surely die' and discuss the tension in commentary rather than importing it into the morphology.