ἐϕ ᾧ πάντες ἥμαρτον(로마서 5:12d)

ἐϕ ᾧ πάντες ἥμαρτον in Romans 5:12d

The aim of this article is to investigate the meaning of ἐϕ ᾧ πάντες ἥμαρτον in Romans 5:12d. The words ἐϕ ᾧ can be taken as a phrase introducing a relative clause or as a conjunction. But the context and Paul's uses of the phrase in his other letters(2 Cor. 5:4; Phil. 3:12) demand it to be understood as a conjunction meaning 'because'. To understand the meaning of πάντες ἥμαρτον, we have to raise a question: how did all sin? In other words, what is the relationship between Adam's sin and all human beings' sin? There have been basically three opinions. (1) All sinned like Adam by copying and so repeating Adam's first sin. (2) All sinned in and with Adam by participating in Adam's first sin. (3) All sinned due to the corrupt nature inherited from Adam. In my view, however, all three opinions fail to grasp correctly the meaning of ἁμαρτία which entered into the world through Adam(5:12a) and to explain properly the relationship between ἁμαρτία in 5:12a and πάντες ἥμαρτον in 5:12d. The word ἁμαρτία occurs 46 times in the first half of Romans. Here it mostly used in singular, appearing as a personified power. The ἁμαρτία is the power which makes human beings deny their creatureliness and challenge the sovereign power of God. This ἁμαρτία entered into the world, enslaving all human beings to evil passion. As a result, all human beings actually sinned in their own persons. Thus death spreads to all human beings. The perspective of Paul's thought here is that of Jewish apocalyptic.