I think he has nailed it! It is a wonderful and theologically accurate article. I especially appreciate his analysis of physical and spiritual death.
What he said about Augustine getting Romans 5:12 completely wrong due to the Latin text that he used is absolutely correct. The harm done by Augustine and those he influenced, which was the entire Western church, is inestimable, harm done to the view of man and to the character of God.
Thanks for posting this article. I wish everyone would read it.
And then again we have this:
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (NASB: Lockman)
Greek: pantes gar emarton (3PAAI) kai husterountai (3PPPI) tes doxes tou theou
Amplified: Since all have sinned and are falling short of the honor and glory which God bestows and receives. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)
Phillips: everyone has sinned, everyone falls short of the beauty of God's plan.) (Phillips: Touchstone)
Wuest: for all sinned and are falling short of the glory of God; (Eerdmans)
Young's Literal: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
FOR ALL HAVE SINNED: pantes gar emarton (3PAAI): (Ro 3:9,19; 1:28, 29, 30, 31, 32; 2:1-16; 11:32; Eccl 7:20; Gal 3:22; 1Jn 1:8, 9, 10)
For (1063) (gar) is a subordinating conjunction expressing or introducing an explanation. Here Paul provides proof that there is no distinction between Jew or Gentile. The common factor is sin for all men have sinned. As Paul explains later all men contracted the "sin virus" from Adam (Ro 5:12-note) and the "sin virus" causes them to commit acts of sin.
All (3956) (pas) means that there are no exceptions to this declaration.
Sinned (264) (hamartano) means miss the mark, to err, to wander from the path of righteousness then, to do or go wrong then, to violate God's law, to sin.
There are 43 uses of hamartano in the NT - Matt. 18:15, 21; 27:4; Lk. 15:18, 21; 17:3, 4; Jn. 5:14; 8:11; 9:2, 3; Acts 25:8; Ro. 2:12; 3:23; 5:12, 14, 16; 6:15; 1Co. 6:18; 7:28, 36; 8:12; 15:34; Eph. 4:26; 1Ti 5:20; Titus 3:11; He 3:17; 10:26; 1Pe 2:20; 2Pe 2:4; 1Jn 1:10; 2:1; 3:6, 8, 9; 5:16, 18
To sin is to act contrary to the will and law of God. Everybody is born into Adam and thus all sinned for when he sinned, for he acted as the representative for all his descendants. Men are not only sinners by nature, but are also sinners by practice and thus continually fall short (see below), in committing sin themselves. Thus there is a universal need for the gospel, which is thankfully mercifully universally available!
The aorist tense here is referred to as "timeless aorist" which gathers up the whole human race for all time into this condemnation (see also A T Robertson). There are no exceptions save Christ Jesus as Paul has made clear in the preceding indictment in (Ro 1:18-3:20) Godet agrees writing that the aorist tense
'transports us to the point of time when the result of human life appears as a completed fact, the hour of judgment."
MacDonald writes that the aorist tense pictures the fact that...
Everybody sinned in Adam; when he sinned, he acted as the representative for all his descendants. But men are not only sinners by nature; they are also sinners by practice.
Leon Morris writes that...
The aorist pictures this as past, but also as a completion. It certainly does not mean that sin belongs wholly in the past, for Paul goes on to a present tense when he says fall short of the glory of God. Elsewhere in Romans the glory is often future (Ro 2:7, 10; 5:2; 8:18, 21). But there is also a present glory, for God “made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6; cf. 2 Cor. 3:18; John 17:22). But this is something Christ produces in believers. Sinners fall short of it. Not only did all sin in the past, but they continually come short of God’s glory. (Ibid)
Vincent writes that the aorist tense means...
looking back to a thing definitely past — the historic occurrence of sin.
Remember that men and women sin because we are sinners by nature. A plum tree bears plums because it is a plum tree. The fruit is the result of its nature. Sin is the fruit of a sinful heart. “The heart is deceitful above all things” (Jer 17:9).
omans 5:12 Therefore *, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because * all sinned -- (NASB: Lockman)
Greek: Dia touto hosper di' enos anthropou e hamartia eis ton kosmon eiselthen (3SAAI) kai dia tes hamartias o thanatos, kai houtos eis pantas anthropous o thanatos dielthen, (3SAAI) eph o pantes hemarton (3PAAI)
Amplified: Therefore, as sin came into the world through one man, and death as the result of sin, so death spread to all men, [no one being able to stop it or to escape its power]
because all men sinned. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)
NLT: When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire human race. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (NLT - Tyndale House)
Phillips: This, then, is what happened. Sin made its entry into the world through one man, and through sin, death. The entail of sin and death passed on to the whole human race, and no one could break it for n
o one was himself free from sin. (Phillips: Touchstone)
Wuest: Wherefore, as through the intermediate agency of one man the aforementioned sin entered the world, and through this sin, death; and thus into and throughout all mankind death entered, because all sinned. (Eerdmans)
Young's Literal: because of this, even as through one man the sin did enter into the world, and through the sin the death; and thus to all men the death did pass through,
for that all did sin;
