Texts in Conversation
Romans 5 traces the entry of sin and death into the world through Adam, how his disobedience brought condemnation to everyone. 4 Ezra uses similar language, describing Adam as burdened with an evil heart whose sin and disobedience are shared with all.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Romans 5:12
New Testament
12 So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned— 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world, but there is no accounting for sin when there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam (who is a type of the coming one) transgressed. 15 But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if the many died through the transgression of the one man, how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply to the many! 16 And the gift is not like the one who sinned. For judgment, resulting from the one transgression, led to condemnation, but the gracious gift from the many failures led to justification. 17 For if, by the transgression of the one man, death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ! 18 Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came through one transgression, so too through the one righteous act came righteousness leading to life for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man many were constituted sinners, so also through the obedience of one man many will be constituted righteous. 20 Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more,
Date: 55–58 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
4 Ezra 3:21
2 Esdras
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
19 Your glory went through four gates, of fire, of earthquake, of wind, and of ice, that you might give the law to the descendants of Jacob, and the commandment to the descendants of Israel. 20 “Yet you didn’t take away from them their wicked heart, that your law might produce fruit in them. 21 For the first Adam, burdened with a wicked heart transgressed and was overcome, as were all who are descended from him. 22 Thus disease was made permanent. The law was in the heart of the people along with the wickedness of the root. So the good departed away and that which was wicked remained. 23 So the times passed away, and the years were brought to an end. Then you raised up a servant, called David, 24 whom you commanded to build a city to your name, and to offer burnt offerings to you in it from what is yours. 25 When this was done many years, then those who inhabited the city did evil, 26 in all things doing as Adam and all his generations had done, for they also had a wicked heart.
Date: 70–132 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... In 4 Ezra, a primary concern is what is called “the evil heart” (3:21, 26; 4:4; 7:48) and the ability of the Law to counter its effects. The seer, called Ezra, wonders whether the Law is sufficient to overcome the problem: “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.” He then adds the following interesting observation: “the Law was in the people’s heart along with the evil root, but what was good departed, and the evil remained” (3:21-22). Thus, Ezra complains that when God gave the Law to Israel he did “not take away from them the evil heart, so that your Law might bring forth fruit in them” (3:20; compare 7:48; 9:36). This sounds almost Pauline! The angel (Uriël) sent to converse with Ezra about such matters, who speaks for God and thus probably represents the views of the author of the book, responds that though the number of those saved will indeed be few, those who have kept the Law “perfectly” (7:89) will receive the award of “immortality” (7:13, 97, 113). It is “for this reason, [that] the Most High has made not one world but two” (7:50), to give people the opportunity to prove themselves in this age and to receive their proper reward in the age to come ..."
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