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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - Romans 5:13 - 5:13
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Rom 5:13. Ἄχρι, until) Sin was in the world, not only after the law was given by Moses, but also during the whole period before the law from Adam down to Moses, during which latter period sinners sinned without the law, ch. Rom 2:12, for the condition of all before Moses, and of the Gentiles subsequently [after Moses’ time], was equal; but this sin was not, properly speaking, the cause of death: because there is no imputation of sin without the law, and consequently there is no death; comp. Rom 5:20. The sin committed by Adam, entailing evil on all, is called the sin (ἡ ἁμαρτία) twice in the preceding verse; now, in this verse, sin in general is called ἀμαρτία without the article.-οὐκ ἐλλογε͂ιται, is not imputed) The apostle is not speaking here of men’s negligence, which disregards sin in the absence of a law, but of the Divine judgment, because sin is not usually taken into any account, not even into the Divine account, in the absence of the law.-Comp. ἐλλόγει, impute, or put it to my account, Phm 1:18, note. Sin therefore does not denote notorious crimes, such as those, for which the inhabitants of Sodom were punished before the time of Moses, but the common evil. Chrysostom on this passage shows exceedingly well, what Paul intended to prove by this argument, ὅτι οὐκ ἀυτὴ ἡ ἁμαρτία τῆς τοῦ νόμου παραβάσεως, ἀλλʼ ἐκείνη ἡ τῆς τοῦ Αδὰμ παρακοῆς, ἀυτὴ ἦν ἡ πάντα λυμαινομένη, καὶ τίς ἡ τούτου ἀπόδειξις; τὸ καὶ πρὸ τοῦ νόμου πάντας ἀποθνήσκειν, “that it was not the very [actual] sin of transgressing the law, but that of the disobedience of Adam-this was the sin that brought universal destruction, and what is the proof of this? The fact that all died before the giving of the law.”