Annotation CCXXXVII

”In whom all have sinned.” — Romans 5:12

Whether the sin of Adam passed to [his] posterity not [as] guilt, but only [by] occasion.

Theodoret, in the commentaries on the epistle to the Romans, elucidating the present passage, seems to intimate that the sin of the first parent did not pass over into [his] posterity according to guilt, but according to the occasion of sinning alone — so that the sin of Adam transfused into us is nothing else than a certain occasion and incitement to sinning, which leads us, as [it were] through four steps, to sin, in this order. First, the sin of Adam induces upon all born of him passibility, corruption, and the mortality of the body. Then mortality brings the indigence and privation of all things which are necessary [and useful]

for the manner of life of mortal life. In the third place, indigence and privation begets the appetite and concupiscence of acquiring and handling the things profitable to mortal life. Finally, the handling and use of things persuades [to] the excess of the mean [i.e. immoderation]. To which persuasion whoever consents, at once sins, and is condemned by spiritual death. And in this way, each one is punished spiritually not on account of Adam’s sin, but on account of his own sin. Theodoret’s words, which seem to convey a sense of this kind, are these: “WHEN God had fashioned Adam, he gave him a precept. He, being deceived, transgressed the command. Since, therefore, on account of this, he had been made liable to the decree of death, thus he begot Cain, and Seth, and others. But all these, inasmuch as [they were] begotten of him, had a mortal nature. And [a nature] of this kind needs many [things] — food, and drink, and clothing, and habitation, and diverse arts. But the use of these often incites to the exceeding of the mean. And the exceeding of the mean generates sin. The divine Apostle says, therefore, that when Adam had sinned, and had been made mortal on account of sin, both came to the race: for upon all men death passed, inasmuch as all have sinned. For each one takes upon himself the decree of death not on account of the first parent’s sin, but on account of his own.” These are Theodoret’s words, with which agree those [things] which he wrote about this matter in the exposition of Psalm 50, upon that [verse], “Behold, in iniquities I was conceived” — [things] observed by us above, in book 5, Annotation 179. To this also looks [that] which, in the Epitome of Divine Decrees [Doctrines], chapter 13, the same author teaches — namely, that there were many holy men who, living in the law of nature from the beginning of [its] founding, were not liable to Adam’s sin. And he expresses a sense of this kind in these plain words: “AS by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one, many shall be made just.” And very necessarily did the Apostle place that [word] “many” in both [clauses]: for indeed, when Adam had sinned, and very many had transgressed the divine laws, [yet] some remained in the decrees of nature, and took care of virtue — as Abel, Enoch, and Noah, and the patriarchs, and the prophets, and very many others, not only among the Jews, but also among other nations; of whom the Apostle said: “For when the Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature the things that are of the law; they, having not the law, are a law to themselves.” For that cause did he place that [word] “MANY,” both in the exemplar [type] and in the image [antitype]. Refer thyself to the preceding Annotation, and hither also thou wilt recall the sayings of Arnobius to this effect: which thou wilt find in book 5, Annotation 177.