Debate has
long raged over whether or not the use of the word ‘sin’ (ἁμαρτίαν) in 5:21 means that Christ is being equated with
the ‘sin-offering’ frequently found in Old Testament texts (such as Lev.
4:24–26; 5:12; 6:17; Num. 6:14; 8:8; and Ps. 40:6) which speak of ritual
sacrifice. This debate is reflected in the difficulties that many modern
translations have in rendering the verse. Paul’s language is very compressed
and needs to be expanded before we are to grasp the theological meaning of the
verse as a whole. We could express these expansions with a translation such as
‘For our sake God made him, who did not know any guilt on account of sin, to be an
atoning offering for sin in order that we might become people who exhibit the righteousness of God’. (Larry Kreitzer, 2
Corinthians [Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996], 112)
