Romans 5:12

‘Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed to all men, for that all sinned:,'

The opening statement is a simple one based on the fall of man in Genesis 3. By this sin entered into the world, with its subsequent penalty of death. In the beginning there was one man (in Hebrew ‘man' = ‘adam'). And through that one man sin and death entered into the world as a result of his own deliberate choice (1 Timothy 2:14). As a consequence both sin and death passed to all men, for the subsequent death of all men demonstrated that all had sinned. Adam had tainted his seed making all men sinful, something proved by the fact that they died.

‘Sin entered into the world --.' That is by an act which established within man a certain disposition to sin. Sin had become a principle within man. Note how, in the passages that follow, sin is constantly seen as a pervasive influence, a kind of tyrant, which affects men and drives them to sin. Compare Romans 5:20; Romans 6:16; Romans 6:23; Romans 7:8; Romans 7:11; Romans 7:13.

‘For that all sinned --.' Eph ho pantes hemarton. For pantes hemarton compare Romans 3:23. Paul is once again taking up his theme that all without exception have sinned. ‘Eph ho' has caused great controversy. If the pronoun is taken as masculine we could translate ‘in whom', a translation which led on to the idea of original guilt. But eph is an unnatural preposition for signifying such an idea, and taking the pronoun as neuter gives us better sense in the light of Paul's whole argument that ‘all have sinned'. Compare in this regard the use of eph ho in 2 Corinthians 5:4; Philippians 3:12. Thus we translate as ‘for that, because'.

There is a diversity of opinion in Jewish tradition concerning man's relationship to Adam's sin, and the teaching is by no means clear, but it may in the main probably be summed up in the words of 2 Baruch 54:15, 19, ‘Adam sinned first and brought death upon all -- Adam is not the cause, except only for himself, but each of us has become the Adam of his own soul'.

‘Therefore just as (howsper) --' would normally require a comparison to follow (‘so also'), something which does not obviously occur in the text. Most would see the comparison as occurring in Romans 5:18, as Paul again takes up his point (e.g. ‘as by one man sin entered into the world -- even so through the obedience of one will many be made righteous'). Others see the comparison as being taken up by, ‘who is a figure of the one who is to come'. But this is not the only occasion when Paul appears to drop a line of argument when diverted by something important that he wants to say. And it may be that we should leave it there. What is important is that the explanation is finally given.