What does Paul mean by “death”?

Explanation:

Paul explains that through sin, death entered the world. What does he mean by death? Interestingly, in what follows, Paul associates death with both physical and spiritual death. For example, in Romans 5:14 Paul says that death reigned from Adam to Moses. Here, he seems to have physical death in mind, that is, the material ending of a human life.⁵

On the other hand, when we reach Romans 5:16 and Romans 5:18, Paul seems to substitute the notion of death with condemnation. In Romans 5:16 he writes that the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation. In other words, the judgment of sin is the condemnation of spiritual death. Likewise, in Romans 5:18 he says that the trespass of one man brought condemnation to all, associating death with condemnation.⁶

Thus, when we consider how Paul characterizes death in Romans 5:14, Romans 5:16, and Romans 5:18, we can detect that he has both physical and spiritual death in mind.

Counterargument:

This argument is unconvincing. That is because death could be taken in a spiritual rather than physical sense in Romans 5:14, and physical rather than spiritual sense in Romans 5:16 and Romans 5:18. Of course, if that is right, then these verses could be taken as referring to either physical death or spiritual death, rather than both physical and spiritual death.

We can detect that Romans 5:14 could be taken in the sense of spiritual death because Paul says that death reigned from Adam to Moses. Now, if Paul could mean either physical or spiritual death by the term death, the fact that it reigned from Adam to Moses does not help us determine that the death was physical, because he may be saying that spiritual death reigned. Likewise, that Paul associates death with condemnation in Romans 5:16 and Romans 5:18 does not imply that the death is spiritual. For Paul could be saying that the condemnation that is the result of sin is physical death. Thus, while Paul could have spiritual and physical death in mind, this argument is not persuasive, for based on Romans 5:14, Romans 5:16, and Romans 5:18, he may only have spiritual or physical death in mind, rather than both.

Response to counterargument:

While it could be that Paul has either physical or spiritual death in mind, given that he has left it that both options are open, he likely wants us to take it that he has both physical and spiritual death in mind. Further, we know from other passages that Paul considered humans spiritually dead. For example, in Ephesians 2:5 he writes that when we were dead in our sins, God made us alive. Added to this, it is obvious that all humans physically die. So the ambiguity suggests that likely Paul has in mind both spiritual and physical death.

Explanation:

There was a general tendency in Jewish theology to associate both spiritual and physical death as a result of Adam’s sin. For Jews, human weakness, corruptibility, and physical death are all the result of separation from God due to Adam’s sin.⁷ Likely Paul has a similar thought in mind when he refers to death as the result of sin. Further, he may have also been reflecting on Genesis 2:17 where God warns Adam that on the day when he eats of the tree he will surely die. Of course, Adam did eat from the tree but he did not die physically, which suggests that the death he died was spiritual.⁸ Of course, one who is spiritually dead and separated from God will also die physically, so death includes both spiritual and physical death, where physical death is the result of spiritual death.⁹

In fact, we get corroborating evidence from Paul that he associated death with spiritual death in his letter to the Ephesians. There he writes that although they were dead in their trespasses, God made them alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:5).¹⁰ So we know from Jewish theology that the result of sin is both physical and spiritual death, and Paul reiterates the fact that he understood the consequence of sin to be spiritual death in Ephesians 2:5. So likely Paul has in mind that through sin came spiritual and physical death.

Counterargument:

This argument says too much. It offers evidence to suggest that when Paul refers to death, he has in mind spiritual death, which can be deduced from Genesis 2:17 and Ephesians 2:5. That is, this argument contends that both passages suggest that when Paul refers to death, he has spiritual death in mind, but then it concludes that he has both spiritual and physical death in mind. This conclusion says too much. For if the passages offered by Paul suggest that he has spiritual death in mind, it is not fair to conclude that he has both spiritual and physical death in mind.

Response to counterargument:

We do not need to look for textual evidence for the notion that death is physical, because physical death is obvious. All humans die. And Paul attributes this fact to sin. What is surprising is that there was not only a physical but also a spiritual death, which we learn by reflecting on Genesis 2:17 and Paul’s comments from Ephesians 2:5.

The weakness of this view is that the natural meaning of the notion that death entered the world through sin is that physical death is the result of sin.

Explanation:

When Paul writes that death came into the world through sin, he likely has in mind physical death. We can detect this because Paul was raised Jewish, and it was common in Jewish theology that the result of sin was physical death.¹¹ For example, Wisdom was likely writing during the first century BC and was an important Jewish theological book. In Wisdom 2:24 we read, But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world. Clearly, Wisdom teaches that physical death entered the world by the devil. And we know from Genesis 3:1–24 that it was the serpent in the form of the devil who tempted Eve. Given Paul’s Jewish heritage, likely he has in mind this important Jewish teaching that physical death came through sin.

Counterargument:

This argument fails to include the full passage of Wisdom 2:24. When we read the full passage, we can see that the death the author discusses there cannot be physical death. For after stating that by the envy of the devil death entered the world, the author writes, And they who are allied with him experience it. In other words, whoever aligns with the devil experiences the death that the devil brought into the world by the sin of Adam. Of course, such a provision suggests that whoever does not align with the devil does not experience death. Yet we know that all people die physically. So it seems there is a death that is not physical, which those who do not align with the devil do not experience.

Response to counterargument:

In fact, this counterargument assumes its conclusion. The argument here is that Paul may be influenced by Jewish theology, and we read in Wisdom 2:24 that death entered the world through the envy of the devil, and all who are allied with him experience it. Of course, every human dies physically, so what the author of Wisdom may be saying is that all align with the devil. So we cannot conclude that there is a possibility that some do not align with the devil, for the author may be using creative means to suggest that since all die, all align with the devil. In fact, the notion that all align with the devil is consistent with what Paul has written in Romans, and especially the notion that all are under sin (Romans 3:9).

Interestingly, there are other ancient Jewish theologies that further support the notion that death is the result of sin. In particular, we read in Sirach 25:24 that sin began with a woman, and we must all die because of her. Clearly, this Jewish author has physical death in mind.

Explanation:

We can detect that the death that entered the world through sin is physical death. For after saying that death entered by sin, Paul explains that death spread to all men (Romans 5:12). In other words, Paul is pointing out the observable fact that all humans physically die. Since this physical death that spread to all men is the same death that entered the world through sin, the death that entered the world through sin is physical death.¹²

Counterargument:

In fact, while physical death may be an aspect of the death that entered the world through sin, elsewhere Paul associates death with spiritual death. For example, in Romans 8:6 Paul writes that the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life. In other words, if one sets one’s mind on the flesh, one is spiritually dead, but if one sets one’s mind on the Spirit, one is spiritually alive. Given that Paul associates death with both physical and spiritual death, we cannot conclude from his associations with physical death that the death entered by sin is only physical death.

The weakness of this view is that it overlooks the spiritual death that humans endure by their separation from God.