Did plants die before Adam sinned?

Young earth critics like Hugh Ross say there was death before Adam sinned because plants died in order for Adam to eat.

Before we decide if there was death before sin we need to define what life is. Plants have neither the “breath of life” nor blood so they cannot “die” in the same sense that man and animals die. God said that He gave plants to man and animals to eat.

Gen 1:29 “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.”

Gen 3:18 “and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;”

After the flood God added animals to man’s diet as seen in

Gen 9:3 “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.”

Notice the “life” is in the blood, which plants do not have. This is seen again in

Lev. 17:11 “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls:”.

God did not accept Cain’s offer of plants while He did accept Abel’s offering of a lamb in

Gen 4:3 “And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect.”

This is where the expression “you can’t get blood out of a turnip” comes from.

Plants are said to wither, fade, be blasted but not die in the same way man dies.

II Kings 19:26 “they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the house tops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.”

Job 8:12 “it withereth before any other herb.”

Ps 37:2 “For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.”

Ps. 104:14 “He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;”

No life forms come forth out of the earth. Animals always come from parents of the same kind.

Is. 42:15 “I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs;”

Jer. 12:4 “and the herbs of every field wither,”