16:28: Who will not taste death.
γεύεσθαι θανάτου.
4 Ezra 6:26: “Then the men who were once taken up, who did not taste
death since their birth (such as Enoch and Elijah) appeared.” ‖ Genesis Rabbah
9 (7A): R. Hama b. Hanina (ca. 260) said, “The first man should not have tasted
the taste of death (שלא יטעום טעם מיתה).” (Why was death imposed on the pious and the godless?) R.
Simeon b. Laqish (ca. 250) said, “To give the former a double recompense and to
punish the latter two times over. To give the righteous a recompense for the
fact that they (actually) should not have tasted the taste of death and (yet)
accepted the taste of death; therefore, it says, ‘They will therefore obtain a
double possession in their land’ (Isa 61:7). Yet to punish the godless, because
the righteous should not have tasted the taste of death and accepted death for
their sake (because of the godless); therefore, it says, ‘With a twofold
smashing, smash them’ (שברם,
Jer 17:18; the Midrash erroneously reads ירשו
‘they shall obtain.’)” ‖ Genesis Rabbah 21 (14B): R. Berekhiah (ca. 340) said
in the name of R. Hanina (ca. 225), “As Elijah did not taste the taste of death
(לא טעם טעם
מות), so too Adam should not
have tasted the taste of death.” ‖ Targum Yerušalmi I Deuteronomy 32:1: “Moses
said in his heart, ‘I will not take as witnesses for this people witnesses who
taste death in this world דטעמין מיתותא;
behold, I will take as witnesses those witnesses who do not taste death in this
world’ (this refers to heaven and earth).” ‖ Babylonian Talmud Yoma 78B: Samuel
(† 254) said, “Whoever wishes to taste the taste of death, האי מאן דבעי למיטעם
טעמא דמיתותא,
let him put on shoes and sleep (let him sleep in shoes).” ‖ Midrash
Ecclesiastes 12:5 (53A): Resh Laqish (ca. 250) said, “Although all taste the
(same) death, each (afterward) has a world for himself.”—The same is found in
Lev. Rab. 18 (117C); see the whole passage in the excursus “Sheol, Gehenna, and
the Garden of Eden,” III, #3, n. q.—See
also § John 8:52. (Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, A
Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash, ed. Jacob N.
Cerone, 4 vols. [trans. Andrew Bowden and Joseph Longarino; Bellingham, Wash.:
Lexham Press, 2022], 1:855-56)
