Central to this argument, for
Augustine, is Romans 5:12, which Augustine interprets radically differently from
Pelagius. The Old Latin translation of the verse that Augustine read is as follows:
“Through one man sin entered the world and through sin death and thus passed on
to all human beings in whom [in quo] all have sinned.” Whereas the Greek
manuscripts and the Vulgate specify that “death passed on to all” the Old Latin
does not specify the subject of “passed on” (pertransiit). Consequently,
Augustine inferred that the subject was “sin” not “death.” Thus, he read the
passage as “and sin passed on to all” (Pecc. merit. 1.9.9). Moreover,
Augustine took the following clause “in whom all sinned” to mean that not only
did Adam’s descendants derive their nature from Adam, but they were in Adam when
he sinned. (J. Warren Smith, Early Christian Theology: A History [Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2026], 108)
Both the Old Latin and the
Vulgate are misleading here. They translate the Greek expression eph’ hō, which means “because,” as in
quo, which means “in whom.” Thus, Augustien’s text of Rom 5:12 is decidedly
different from the sense of the Greek: “and death passed to all people because
all people sinned.” Although Augustine’s overall argument does not stand or
fall entirely on his reading of this verse, the errors in the Old Latin text contributed
to his argument about the transmission of original sin. (Ibid., 108 n. 6)
