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■ Human Endeavor and the Quest for Eternal Life 70 Gen 2 : 17 ) , presents a problem . ; מות תמות ( God expresses by the phrase “you will die” On the one hand, as the story makes clear, death need not come immediately after the act . Yet for Radak, “you will die” cannot mean “you will die eventually ”, because the body must die regardless . He explains, therefore, that it must mean only “you will die sooner than otherwise,” or even just “you will endure a curse . ” 33 More important, after Adam eats from the tree, God pronounces that he must return Gen 3 : 19 ) . According to ; עפר אתה ואל עפר תשוב ( to the dust from which he came our commentator, however, death was inevitable from the start . Hence, he offers the following novel explanation : “Until you return to the earth” – Because you have been drawn to the earthly element from which you were [ physically ] extracted rather than to the transcendent element, you have shown that you for which reason your form will return to dust , ) ...
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