Texts in Conversation
In Romans, Paul describes creation trapped in futility due to Adam and waiting for freedom. 4 Ezra similarly reflects on Adam’s sin, showing how Second Temple traditions about Adam offered an explanation for the state of creation and hope for the future.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Romans 8:20
New Testament
18 For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the coming glory that will be revealed to us. 19 For the creation eagerly waits for the revelation of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly but because of God who subjected it—in hope 21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now.
Date: 55–58 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
4 Ezra 7:11
2 Esdras
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
9 If this city is now given to a man for an inheritance, if the heir doesn’t pass the danger before him, how will he receive his inheritance?” 10 I said, “That is so, Lord.” Then he said to me, “Even so also is Israel’s portion. 11 I made the world for their sakes. What is now done was decreed when Adam transgressed my statutes. 12 Then the entrances of this world were made narrow, sorrowful, and toilsome. They are but few and evil, full of perils, and involved in great toils. 13 For the entrances of the greater world are wide and safe, and produce fruit of immortality.
Date: 70–132 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... What is noticeable here is the double allusion. First, creation subjected to futility no doubt alludes to the curse put upon the created order in consequence of Adam's sin in Gen 3:17-18: 'cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you ....' This too may well have been an insight he drew from his deep rootage in Jewish reflection, if 4 Ezra 7:11 is anything to go by ..."
James D. G. Dunn, “Adam in Paul,” in The Pseudepigrapha and Christian Origins: Essays from the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, ed. Gerbern S. Oegema and James H. Charlesworth, Jewish and Christian Texts in Contexts and Related Studies 4 (New York: T&T Clark International, 2008), 130–131.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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