In today’s first reading our selection from The Letter to the Romans moves on from its prior focus on Abraham as a model of trust/belief/faith even when he has moments of doubts. Moving ahead to Chapter 5, St. Paul now takes on the matter of sin and death. Paul’s claim that “Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death” would have been nothing new to anyone familiar with Genesis chapters 2-3 and the Jewish understanding of those chapters. This “man” is, of course, Adam, whose very name means “man.”

Throughout Romans Chapter 5 and well into Chapter 8, Paul attributes to “sin” a very active role: 

it “reigns” (5:20; cf. 6:13, 14), can be “obeyed” (6:16–17), pays wages (6:23), seizes opportunity (7:8, 11), “deceives,” and “kills” (7:11, 13). In a word, he personifies sin, picturing it as a power that holds sway in the world outside Christ, bringing disaster and death on all humanity. Through this personification, Paul shows that individual acts of sin constitute a principle, or “network,” of sin that is so pervasive and dominant that the person’s destiny is determined by those actions. In the present instance, then, the “sin” that enters the world is more than an individual sin; it is the bridgehead that paves the way for “sinning” as a condition of humanity. The fact that Paul attributes to Adam this sin is significant since he certainly knows from Genesis that the woman, Eve, sinned first (cf. 2 Cor. 11:3; 1 Tim. 2:14). [Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, 1996; p.319]

The verse above is incomplete. The entire verse reads: “and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men, inasmuch (houtōs) as all sinned.” The word houtōs is one of those words that depending on how it is translated has lots of different implications. Remember it is all tied to the expression “through one man.” That being said, the majority of commentators think that “houtōs” draws a comparison between the manner in which death came into the world—through sin—and the manner in which death spread to everyone—also through sin. The implications are death is universal because sin is universal: “all sinned.”

But it is not the only possible rendering. Perhaps the most famous alternative is the translation “in whom,” adopted by Augustine and others. For, assuming that “the one man” is the antecedent of the pronoun, we have then an explicit statement of “original sin”: “in Adam all sinned.” St. Paul’s single verse has resulted in centuries of debate and caused deep divisions among Christians over the “transmission of original sin.”

However, St. Paul’s main interest is not to talk about sin or death, but rather to draw a contrasting picture of Adam and Christ, prominent figures of the beginning and the end time respectively. Adam is a “prototype” of the person to come, namely, Jesus, who would far surpass what Adam did. The world was changed by both of these individuals.

Adam unleashed an active hostile force into the world (sin), which had the power to cause definitive alienation (death) from God, the source of all life, inasmuch as or because all individuals have sinned through personal, actual deeds (v. 12). Thus death has two causes in human existence: Adam’s sin and personal ratification of that deed by individuals who sin. This was Adam’s effect on the world. In contrast, Christ’s effect is starkly different. Through the gracious gift, namely, the redemptive death of Jesus Christ uprightness and life superabound for all individuals who accept him. [Collegeville Bible Commentary, 1989, p.1086]

Debates aside, it is good to remember sin and death are real, but more real are grace and eternal life found in Christ as Lord and Savior.

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