Original Sin Not Biblical but from 2 Esdras 3 or Pseudographical
Source: Turpin,
S. (2016, July 25). "Original Sin: How Original Is It? Romans 5:12."
Downloaded on the 29th of December 2018 from https://answersingenesis.org/sin/original-sin/how-original-is-it-romans-5-12/.
Clearest evidence for Original Sin not
in Bible but in 2 Esdras 3:21-22 and 26 Citation from Turpin 2016 "Although the term original sin
may have been employed by Augustine to refer to our collective human guilt and
corruption, this does not mean that it was invented by him. There is an outline
of the teaching of original sin in the Patristic theology of Irenaeus (AD
130–202), Basil (AD 329–379) and Ambrose (AD 340–397).9 Moreover, the Jewish
people of the second temple period (530 BC–70 AD) “shared the view that human sin [was] derived from Adam (IV
Ezra 3.7; Sifre Deut. 3:23).”10 Possibly the clearest text that refers to
original sin resulting from Adam is found in 2 Esdras 3:21–22, 26.11." Van Wyk Notes:
This is a big problem that the clearest evidence for Original Sin is outside
the Word of God and not inside it. Esdras is not Bible but pseudepigrapha.
ἐφ᾽ ᾧ πάντες ἥμαρτονa
difficult technical reading Citation from Turpin 2016 "It must be recognized that these
words “because all sinned” (ἐφ᾽ ᾧ πάντες ἥμαρτον, eph’ ho pantes hemarton) are “fiercely contested
and difficult to understand.”14 This does not mean, however, they are
impossible to understand. If we will allow Paul’s theology to stand as a whole,
we will see how they function in his argument in this passage."
Van Wyk Notes:
This technical term is the key why the original sin doctrine sinks. It is not “because”
but a more literal rendering: “upon which”.
Alexander explains the errorful
translation of Augustine et al Citation from Turpin 2016 "Like Giberson,15 theistic
evolutionist Dr. Denis Alexander believes Romans 5:12 does not speak of sin as
being inherited from Adam but rather coming through our own individual acts of
sin. He argues: The error arose from a mistranslation
of the Greek construction eph’ ho (i) (ἐφ᾽ ᾧ) as ‘in whom’ rather than its
correct meaning in this context of ‘because.’ So Augustine read the last phrase
to mean that sin was transmitted from Adam to ‘all men,’ whereas Paul’s meaning
is quite different, as NIV has it. . . . So Paul is saying here that spiritual
death spread to all people on account of their own sinning. Once Romans 5:12 is
correctly translated it does then bring its teaching into line with the rest of
Scripture, which is insistent that each person is responsible for his or her
own sin. It is not guilt that is inherited from Adam but a propensity to sin,
so that as a matter of fact everyone does in a sense repeat the sin of Adam.16 As Alexander argues, the translation
of Romans 5:12 as “because all sinned” seems to indicate that individuals are
subject to death because of their own personal sin. Whereas, the translation
“in whom all sinned” would mean that people are subject to death not because of
their individual sin but because of Adam’s. While Augustine may have been in
error over the translation of the Greek in Romans 5:12, the theological point
he brought out is correct, as the text goes on to explain." Van Wyk Notes:
Alexander is correct in the mistranslation by the text that Augustine used for
both the Old Latin and Jerome in the Vulgate translated (or borrowed: [Vulgate (389
A.D.) from Old Latin (190 A.D.)]) the Greek of Romans wrongly. See EGW Note
earlier.
Primary cause and secondary cause of
Schreiner Citation from Turpin 2016 "Yet it is not necessary to view
Romans 5:12 as either teaching that our sin is the result of Adam’s
disobedience or that it is because of our own individual sin. It should be
recognized that the text indicates that there is a primary and a secondary
cause, as Schreiner acknowledges: Paul does not deny in this text that
the sin of individuals lead[s] to death. What he affirms . . . is that
individuals come into the world condemned and spiritually dead because of
Adam’s sin. The latter part of 5:12 must not be separated from the first part
of the verse. Sin and death entered into the world through Adam, and hence
people sin and die both because of Adam’s sin and their own sin, though the sin
of Adam is fundamental and foundational.17 Therefore, the primary cause would be
Adam’s disobedience, when death entered the world, and the secondary cause is
the sin of individuals who through their own disobedience bring death upon
themselves.18" Van Wyk Notes:
Adam provided death as a reality and sin as a potential agenda for all to
decide to embark on. All do.
Counterargument by Turpin 2016: Citation from Turpin 2016 "All through Romans 5:12–21 Paul
speaks of the sin of one man (verses 15–19) and not individuals as the cause of
the problem." "Therefore “Paul is insisting that people were really
‘made’ sinners through Adam’s act of disobedience.”20"
Piper's individual responsibility
argument Citation from Turpin 2016 "John Piper argues that if we
read, “Through Adam sin and death entered the world, and death spread to
everybody because all sinned individually,” then the comparison with the work
of Jesus . . . would probably be, “So also, through Jesus Christ, righteousness
and life entered the world, and life spread to all because all individually did
acts of righteousness.27" Van Wyk Notes:
Piper cannot be correct since babies have no sin and yet they die also.
Counter Piper argument by Turpin: Citation from Turpin 2016 "Our justification then would not
come through the imputed righteousness of Christ’s righteousness to us but
through our doing individual acts of righteousness with Christ’s help.28 We
would not want to find ourselves in this situation because Scripture makes it
abundantly clear we cannot save ourselves apart from divine grace (Ephesians
2:8–9)."
Footnotes of Turpin 2016 Original sin is also referred to as
inherited sin. Michael Horton, The Christian Faith: A
Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan,
2011), 426. This idea of human goodness is of
course contrary to the teaching of Scripture (cf. Romans 3:9–19). Giberson describes himself as being
outside evangelicalism: “Leading fundamentalist gatekeeper Al Mohler was right
to describe me as ‘far outside of the evangelical mainstream.’ I don’t think I
am even in the stream any longer” (Karl Giberson, Saving the Original Sinner: How Christians Have Used the Bible’s
First Man to Oppress, Inspire, and Make Sense of the World [Boston: Beacon
Press, 2015], 170–171). As far as Giberson is concerned, we
are “evolved creatures, shaped by natural selection” (ibid., 178). Ibid., 176. Ibid., 176–177. Ibid., 29. Other theistic
evolutionists also accuse Augustine of this: See Denis Lamoureux, “No
Historical Adam; Evolutionary Creation View,” in Four Views on the Historical
Adam (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013), 58. See Peter Sanlon, “Original Sin in
Patristic Theology,” in Adam, The Fall, and Original Sin: Theological,
Biblical, and Scientific Perspectives (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014),
85–107. Brevard Childs, Biblical Theology of
the Old and New Testaments (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), 579. “For the first Adam, burdened with an
evil heart, transgressed and was overcome, as were also all who were descended
from him. Thus the disease became permanent; the law was in the hearts of the
people along with the evil root; but what was good departed, and the evil remained
. . . in everything doing just as Adam and all his descendants had done, for
they also had the evil heart.” (2 Esdras 3:21–22, 26 NRSV). “Διὰ τοῦτο ὥσπερ δι᾽ ἑνὸς
ἀνθρώπου ἡ ἁμαρτία εἰς τὸν κόσμον εἰσῆλθεν καὶ διὰ τῆς
ἁμαρτίας
ὁ θάνατος, καὶ οὕτως
εἰς πάντας ἀνθρώπους
ὁ θάνατος διῆλθεν, ἐφ᾽ ᾧ πάντες ἥμαρτον” (Romans 5:12, Novum Testamentum
Graece, 28th Revised Edition). In the context of Genesis 3, this is
both spiritual (verse 8, i.e., separation and estrangement from God) and
physical death (verse 19). Thomas Schreiner, “Original Sin and
Original Death: Romans 5:12–19,” in Adam, the Fall, and Original Sin (eds. Hans
Madueme and Michael Reeves; Grand Rapids: Baker Academics, 2014), 273. Giberson states, “Augustine notes that
Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans that ‘sin came into the world through
one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all, in whom all
have sinned.‘ Original sin made sense of this passage. Most scholars agree with
Augustine’s fourth –century critics, however, that this passage should have
been translated, as the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) does today: ‘Death
spread to all because all have sinned.’ Much turns on this difference”
(Giberson, Saving the Original Sinner, 60). Denis Alexander, Creation or
Evolution: Do We Have to Choose? (2d ed. revised, Monarch Books: Oxford, UK,
2014), 343–344. Schreiner, Original Sin and Original
Death, 280. For an exegesis and defense for Romans 5:12–19 teaching the
doctrine of original sin, see Thomas Schreiner’s chapter “Original Sin and
Original Death: Romans 5:12–19,” in Adam, the Fall, and Original Sin (eds. Hans
Madueme and Michael Reeves; Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academics, 2014). This is also recognised by Colin G.
Kruse, Paul’s Letter To The Romans: The Pillar New Testament Commentary (W. B.
Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2012), 240–242. The Greek verb translated as “made”
(καθίστημι, kathistemi) in the New
Testament does not mean to change the character of something but to “bring,
conduct” (Acts 17:15), “appoint” (Titus 1:5), or “make” or “constitute” (James
3:6; 4:4; 2 Peter 1:8) someone in a particular way. Douglas Moo, The Epistle to the
Romans: NICNT (W. B. Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996), 345. Horton, The Christian Faith, 426. This is Giberson’s view of Adam: “The
story of Adam is thus the story of Everyman” (Giberson, Saving the Original
Sinner, 170; see also pages 30 and 50). Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The
First Letter To The Corinthians: The Pillar New Testament Commentary (W. B.
Eerdmans, Publishing Company: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2010), 763. Giberson, Saving the Original Sinner,
25. The idea of federal headship is seen
throughout the Old Testament, for example, when David fights Goliath; both men
represent each nation (1 Samuel 17). James M. Boice, Romans, vol. 2. The
Reign of Grace. (Romans 5–8) (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker, 1992), 583. John Piper, Counted Righteous in
Christ (InterVarsity Press: Leicester, England), 92. See Piper, Counted Righteous in
Christ, 93. Denis Alexander recognizes that the
doctrine of “original sin” is incompatible with evolution. In an article in an
English newspaper, The Guardian, concerning the doctrine of “original sin” he
states: “There is clear incompatibility with evolution, in which anatomically modern
humans first start appearing in Africa about 200,000 years ago through a
process involving countless deaths over thousands of generations.” Alexander
also states in the article that “nowhere does the Bible teach that physical
death originates with the sin of Adam, nor that sin is inherited from Adam.”
Denis Alexander, “Evolution, Christmas and the Atonement: We are not descended
from Adam and Eve—but still, Jesus was born to save us,” The Guardian, December
23, 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/dec/23/evolution-christmas-and-the-atonement. New Testament scholar Douglas Moo
rightly recognizes that “Paul frequently uses ‘death’ and related words to
designate a ‘physical-spiritual entity’—‘total death,’ the penalty incurred for
sin.” Douglas Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, 320. See also: Colin G. Kruse, Paul’s
Letter to the Romans, 242–244. The Greek word theodicy is made up of
the two words theos (God) and dike (justice), and has to do with the
justification of God’s goodness in the face of evil.