I recently encountered a person (a Calvinist) very knowledgable in Greek who said that the phrase "epi ho" translated "because" in most, if not all, English translations at the end of Romans 5:12 is misleading. The phrase, he argued, should be translated "upon which", which in turn would change the entire meaning of the passage and our understanding of the doctrine of original sin. He argued that Paul had a number of words in Greek that meant "because" and he chose none of them.
So according to this model, then, Adam brought death into the world through sin, and then death would come upon us thus causing us to sin, rather than the traditional model which states that our sinning with Adam brought death to ourselves. If this translation is correct, then this new model would look something like this:
DEATH → SIN → ADAM → WORLD → ALL MEN → SIN
rather than the traditional model:
DEATH → SIN → ADAM (all men in Adam) → WORLD → DEATH
This was the first time I have ever heard this surrounding Romans 5:12. I am kind of confused about Romans 5:12.
Can anyone help me to understand this little phrase at the end on v. 12? Should we re-translate "epi ho pantes hemarton" as "upon which all sinned", or just leave it like it is in most of our English translations? If we should re-translate it, then wouldn't that modify the doctrine of original sin?
So according to this model, then, Adam brought death into the world through sin, and then death would come upon us thus causing us to sin, rather than the traditional model which states that our sinning with Adam brought death to ourselves. If this translation is correct, then this new model would look something like this:
DEATH → SIN → ADAM → WORLD → ALL MEN → SIN
rather than the traditional model:
DEATH → SIN → ADAM (all men in Adam) → WORLD → DEATH
This was the first time I have ever heard this surrounding Romans 5:12. I am kind of confused about Romans 5:12.
Can anyone help me to understand this little phrase at the end on v. 12? Should we re-translate "epi ho pantes hemarton" as "upon which all sinned", or just leave it like it is in most of our English translations? If we should re-translate it, then wouldn't that modify the doctrine of original sin?