What does this mean, “Because all have sinned?” In that fall even those
who did not eat of the tree,--all did form that transgression become mortal. .
. . For [Adam’s sin in Paradise] was productive of that death in which we all
participate. From this it is clear that it was not this sin, the sin of
transgressing the Law, that ruined everything, but that sin of Adam’s
disobedience. What is the proof of this? The fact that even before the Law, all
died. “Death reigned,” he says, “from Adam to Moses, even over those who had
not sinned.” How did it reign? “In the likeness of the transgression of Adam,
who is a type of Him who was to come.” This too is why Adam is a type of
Christ: . . . That when a Jew would say to you, “How by the righteous action of
this one Man, Christ, was the world saved?” you might be able to answer him,
“How by the wrong-doing of one man, Adam, was the world condemned.” (John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle to
the Romans 10.1, c. A.D. 391, The Faith of the Early Fathers, 3 vols.
[trans. William A. Jurgens; Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 1979],
2:114)
Rom. 5:12, and Chrysostom with it: εφ’ ω παντες ημαρτον. It is
often pointed out in modern commentaries and in some not so modern that εφ’ ω does not mean in
whom, but because. Chrysostom knew Greek too, and he never supposed
it meant anything except because. He still refers the passage to original sin,
and understands by the clause “because all have sinned” that what is meant
“because all have sinned [in Adam].” It is not just that all have sinned in
sequence after Adam, but all have sinned in consequence of Adam.
The modern tendency exhibited by a few
authors to exclude from Rom. 5:12 any notion of original sin’s passing from
Adam to all of mankind is too much. All we now admit, I suppose, that Rom. 5:12
says (1) that through one man, Adam, sin made its entry into the world and that
(2) death came in consequence of sin; and that (3) in view of the causal
relationship of sin to death, death is the lot of all men, (4) because all have
sinned. The question remains, then, how to interpret the final clause, “because
all have sinned.” The tendency of some to understand this final clause as
referring solely to personal sin makes useless verbiage of the rest of the
passage. Are we to understand that Adam is introduced merely as a historical
reference to the first man who sinned? The final clause clearly calls for the
interpretation “because all have sinned in Adam.” It need not exclude
personal sin, but it must include original sin.
It is probable, however, that even without the line beginning εφ’ ω and with only the first three points of the four
noted above, Chrysostom and the Fathers at large would have seen Rom. 5;12 as
referring to original sin. The mention of sin causing death, and death being
therefore the lot of all men were enough; for it must be admitted that the
Fathers in general do not easily distinguish between original sin and effects.
Thus, for Chrysostom, the very fact that men do die, even without the “because
all have sinned,” would point to original sin. (Ibid.,
115-16 n. 5)
After Adam sinned, as I noted before,
when the Lord said, “You are earth, and to earth you shall return,” Adam was
condemned to death. This condemnation passed on to the whole race. For all
sinned, already by their sharing in that nature (ipsa iam urgente natura,
more literally, already by a burdening nature itself), as the apostle
says: “For through one man sin made its entry, and through sin death, and thus
it came down to all men, because all have sinned.” (Pacian of Barcelona, Sermon
on Baptism 2, ante A.D. 392, The Faith of the Early Fathers, 3
vols. [trans. William A. Jurgens; Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press,
1979], 2:143-44)
in quo. St. Pacian does not seem to refer
the in quo to Adam; at least not in any grammatical way. He correctly
understands that in quo, rendering the Greek εφ’ ω, has the sense of because. His manner of
quoting the celebrated passage (Rom. 5:12) is: Quia per unum hominem
paccatum introivit, et per delictum mors, et sic in omnes homines devenit, in
quo omnes peccaverunt. Yet it is clear enough in this same passage that he
does regard the sin of Adam as having been passed on to all his progeny. (Ibid., 144 n. 3)
Ambrosiaster
on Rom 5:12:
The in quo of this passage
renders the Greek εφ’ ω. The Latin is barely
capable of being translated in the sense of because; bit it is difficult
to translate the Greek in any other way. St. Augustine is usually blamed for
initiating the “in whom” interpretation, rendering the in quo to Adam.
But the Ambrosiaster is certainly older than Augustine, who “in fact, quotes
this very passage, attributing it to St. Hilary (Aug., Contra duas epistolas
Pelagianorum 4, 4, 7). Altaner notes that the Ambrosiaster may be regarded
(against W. Mundle) as “a precursor of the Augustinian view of the doctrine of
grace and original sin” (Patrology, 2nd English ed., 1961, p. 458). (William Jurgens, The Faith of the Early
Fathers, 3 vols. [Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 1979], 2:179
n. 1)
