Comments on Romans 5:12-14

Welcome back, Timotheos! It has been a long and eventful time for you, a time filled with much grief, but the kind of grief the world knows not.

¹² Because of this, just as through one man sin came into the world and death came through sin, and so death spread to all people, by which all sinned. ¹³ For until the Law, sin was in the world. But sin is not reckoned when there is no Law. ¹⁴ But death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression, who is a type of the one to come.

I believe that you are right to comment on Romans 5:12-21 in shorter segments because of the passage’s complexity and fullness. Again, I find that our translations are quite similar. In particular, you and I have translated Paul’s use of eph hō pantes hēmarton in the same way, even if our words are slightly different. By this, I mean, that while you translated the phrase “upon the basis of this death all sinned” and I translated it “by which all sinned,” we both regard the antecedent of “this” or “which” to be death. For clarity’s sake, I prefer your translation which resembles Tom Schreiner’s translation in Romans (BECNT, p. 274).

Augustine, who did not know Greek well, set interpreters to misreading the phrase eph hō pantes hēmarton as though it were equivalent to ev hō pantes hēmarton. Augustine made two mistakes. First, he misunderstood eph hō as equivalent to en hō, thus his Latin translation, in quo. Second, he misunderstood the relative pronoun to refer to the one man (anthrōpou), Adam, rather than to death (thanatos), thus yielding his translation in whom rather than upon the basis of which.

Following Augustine theologically but not exegetically, most interpreters take the phrase eph hō in a causal sense—so death came to all, because all sinned (cf. RSV, NRSV, NIV, NASB, NASB95, ESV). Many take the all sinned to refer to solidarity with Adam when he sinned. Some who take the phrase causally also take the all sinned as referring to imitation of Adam by sinning as individuals in the likeness of Adam’s sin. The problem with this, as Schreiner rightly observes, is that “it suggests a Pelagian understanding of the relationship between Adam’s sin and the sin of the rest of humanity” (p. 275). Of course, if indeed Paul’s theological formulations in Romans 5:12ff support Pelagius’ teaching, we ought to follow such formulations. The remainder of the passage (5:15-21) is against Pelagius’ view. This includes especially verse 14 which, as we will see below, makes it expressly clear that death reigned over all from Adam until Moses even though they did not sin in the same way that Adam had sinned.

So, I agree with Schreiner that the all sinned does refer to each individual human as personally sinning but also that the phrase eph hō explains the basis upon which every human sins. Every human who comes into this world sins as a result of death which has come to everyone of us, and death came to us all because Adam sinned. Thus, we each enter into the world in the state of spiritual death by virtue of Adam’s sin (sorry about the unintended pun). So, by virtue of entering into the world in the state of spiritual death we all sin.

You, Timotheos, are correct to mention two large-scale divine punishments of human sinfulness by pointing to the time of Noah and that of Babel. In both, humans sinned, but as you point out, the sinning was not in the likeness of Adam’s sin in the Garden. The sinning that incited God’s wrath to drown the vast majority of humanity at the time of Noah and to scatter all humanity by confusing the one language of the one people at Babel was not transgression or trespass, even though it was sin.

Some take Paul’s words in verse 14—But death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression—to refer to infants. John Piper, following Jonathan Edwards, takes the reference to infants. This is foreign to Paul’s argument. Paul’s concern in speaking of those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression is hardly to refer to a special subset of humans. Rather, Paul is speaking of all humans from Adam until the Law came in with Moses. Death reigned over every human from Adam until the Law. Why? Death reigned over everyone because death came into the world through Adam. Consequently, even though individuals did not transgress as Adam had, they nonetheless were subject to death. Though they did not transgress, they still sinned.

Unfortunately, Piper and Edwards seem to miss the point, if not also the force, of Paul’s argument. As you, Timotheos, point out well, “The link being that both Adam and Moses heard commands and prohibitions, in other words, both Adam and Moses (representing Israel) were in covenant with God.” Paul’s mention of Moses is just as you suggest, to refer to the giving of the Law to Israel, a divine act that brings about a recapitulation of the giving of the command to Adam in the Garden. Both instances foreshadow the recapitulation that comes with Christ Jesus who is “the one to come” typified or foreshadowed by Adam and again foreshadowed by Israel. Wherein Adam proved disobedient and Israel proved unfaithful, Jesus Christ is both obedient and faithful. Elsewhere, I have already said much concerning Israel’s unfaithfulness and Christ’s faithfulness here, here, and here. Now we must turn to comment upon Adam’s disobedience and Christ’s obedience.

Peace, huios!