Thursday, May 23, 2024

Garry Williams on Romans 5:12

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 εφω 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 εφω 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 [εφω 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)