LOL Yes it is a misnomer. You speak all of the words you want trying to get around it but in the end, it's still a misnomer.
Here is a rather wordy, but i think correct, view of the verse in dispute:
Gen 2:16–17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat from every tree of the garden, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, [in] dying, you will die."
The first word in v. 16 is
command and it is in the Piel imperfect. The Piel stem could be intensive and it could be completed action without regard to how it came about. Being first in the verse indicates that this command is important. In fact, this is the first recorded words of God to man following man's creation. This indicates that this is most important. From day one of his life on earth, Adam was given a very simple command. One tree was off limits and God even gave Adam a reason for it being off limits. Adam is warned that he will die and
dying is found twice, a doubling of the verb, a Hebraism. It is first found in the Qal infinitive absolute and then in the Qal imperfect. An infinitive absolute stands alone as a noun, verb or an adverb. Usually, it takes the place of a noun. It can be used to intensify the meaning of the word, as it most certainly does here, but it can also state a state of being. We could translate this,
in a state of dying, you die; or
in a state of death, you will begin dying. . This describes exactly what will happen to Adam when he eats from the tree. He will immediately go into a state of spiritual death; that is, he will not be able to have fellowship with God on his own initiative. God must seek him out and begin the fellowship. So Adam will find himself immediately spiritually dead, cut off from God in several ways. However, this will not be the end of the curse. He will also begin a state of decay and physical degeneration which will eventuate in human death.
This establishes a parallelism between man's state of innocence (or, more properly, perfection) and man's fallen state. As a perfect person, Adam could only do one thing wrong; there was only one act of free will which would cause Adam to lose his fellowship with God and that was choosing to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In man's fallen state, there is only one decision of merit which will affect man's relationship to God and that is man's decision concerning another tree, the tree that Jesus Christ died on. Rev. 22:2 and 14 both speak of the
tree of life; the Greek word used is ξύλον (xulon), and it means
tree, cross, wood, or
stocks. The exact same word is found in I Pet. 2:24 And He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for "by His wounds were you healed." See also Acts 10:39 13:29 Gal. 3:13. All other decisions for man in his fallen state do not affect his relationship with God one way or the other.
God sets up one tree in the garden and that tree is to test the volition of man. For man to have free will, there has to be the ability to make a free will choice against God. There is one tree in the garden, and, in innocence, the only way man can sin is by eating from that one tree. In a world of sin, far from the Garden of Eden, we also face one tree which tests our free will—the cross on which Christ died. Our attitude toward that
tree determines our eternity. Man could choose one tree in the Garden of Eden to express negative volition toward God; man outside of the garden can choose one tree to express positive volition toward God. Adam’s eventual choice to eat from this tree will result in a condemnation upon all mankind; our choice to trust in the tree (the cross) of Christ will result in eternal justification.
The words here are identical. The first translation of a book from one language to another was the Greek Bible, which translated the Hebrew Old Testament into the Greek language sometime between 300–100 b.c. It was known as the Septuagint (the LXX), referring to the number of translators involved in this project. In this verse, they used the Greek word xulon (ξύλον) [pronounced
XOO-lohn], which means
1) wood; 1a) that which is made of wood; 2) a tree. These are some of the Thayer definitions. Strong’s #3586. We find this exact same word used in 1Peter 2:24 (which quotes, in part, Isa. 53): He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. This exact same word is used in several other New Testament passages to refer to the cross upon which our Lord died (Acts 5:30 10:39 13:29 Gal. 3:13).
In our lives, we make a decision relative to a tree (the cross) to determine our eternal destiny; and Adam was faced with a tree as well, which would determine his eternal destiny. The Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil is that tree. The implication is, Adam lives in a world where there is no good and evil in the realm of his perception. He does not know that it exists. Furthermore, Adam is incapable of doing good or evil in this state. Apart from eating from this tree, Adam cannot sin.