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You've mentioned this before, and it was a surprise to me then, too. This is an extrabiblical tradition, presumably?


No, or at least I don't think so. In the OT Genesis says that humans will die once they eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Gen 2:17: but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.

And then in the NT in Romans Paul speaks about death entering through Adam in order to illustrate Christ's victory over death by which he brings eternal life. Even while we still must suffer physical death because of Adam's origional sin, Christ offers us eternal life and regeneration if we are justified by His sacrifice.

Rom 5:12: Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—

Rom 5:17-18: For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.

Rom 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The strong implication is that death is only in the world because of man and man's choice to defy God.

To answer the rest of your questions, I think that Eden was far different than what we have now where we must experience death. Adam and Eve are only ever referred to eating from the plants, not killing animals and eating them (or sacrificing them or anything else). Eden was creation as God intended us to live, without death or decay. When man fell and sin entered the world, that fundamentally changed us and nature around us, leaving us with an imperfect replica of what was origionally intended.
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-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.