E. W. Hengstenberg: The fall of humanity in Adam

[Reformed Covenanter]

The account of Adam’s fall can be understood in its full compass only if in it the whole human race fell, which can no otherwise be conceived than on the supposition of the propagation of sin by generation. That Adam’s fall is the fall of the human family, is implied, in the punishment, which affects not the individual, but the entire race.

Everything which stands immediately connected with the account of the fall, the narrative of Cain’s fratricide, etc., is inexplicable, if we limit the fall merely to the individual Adam, and there is a breaking down of the bridge formed, in the generation between him and. his posterity, to which express allusion is made in Gen. v. 3, “And Adam begot like him and after his image,” (in every respect, and hence also in reference to sin, which had now become a property of his nature.) The whole subsequent relation is designed to shew, how fruitfully the principle of sin, implanted in nature through Adam, developed itself. According to Gen. viii. 21, the thoughts and imaginations of the human heart are only evil from his youth.

For the reference, see:

E. W. Hengstenberg: The fall of humanity in Adam

The account of Adam’s fall can be understood in its full compass only if in it the whole human race fell, which can no otherwise be conceived than on the supposition of the propagation of sin…

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