While arguing for the historic Reformed understanding of Original Sin (and Total Depravity), Reformed author Garry Williams noted that Rom 5:12 is not as strong a “proof-text” for the doctrine as many believe it to be:
Many
in history have understood the verse as Augustine did when he rendered εφ’ ω παντες ημαρτον
as “in quo omnes peccaverunt” (“in whom all sinned”). If the verse did say
that, it would indeed confirm the idea of all humanity sinning in Adam. The
difficulty with that reading is the distance between the phrase εφ’ ω and its presumed antecedent
“through one man.” the more likely sense of the phrase is “because” or “in
that,” which is how it is used in 2 Corinthians 5:4: “because we do not want to
be unclothed [εφ’ ω ου θελομεν εκδυσασθαι]”
(CSB). The translation “because all sinned” leaves open the question of how all
sinned, whether in Adam’s sin or in their own. (Garry Williams, “Total
Depravity and God’s Covenant with Adam (2): The Imputation of Adam’s Sin,” in Ruined
Sinners to Reclaim: Sin and Depravity in Historical, Biblical, Theological, and
Pastoral Perspective, ed. David Gibson and Jonathan Gibson [The Doctrines
of Grace Series; Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2024], 598)
