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About this book

Romans

About this book
Chapter 5

1 Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have also obtained access into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God’s glory. 3 Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance, character, and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.⁠ 6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 (For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to die.) 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God’s wrath. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life? 11 Not only this, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation. 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, 21 so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Texts in conversation

Compare Romans 5:12 and 4 Ezra 4:30

New Testament · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

In Romans, Paul describes how sin and death began with Adam, describing humans universally connected by mortality. 4 Ezra also explains the persistence of evil by linking it to Adam’s sin, describing it as an unavoidable condition affecting everyone.

Passages

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!
55–58 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Romans

4 Ezra 4:30

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · 2 Esdras
28 For the evil about which you asked me has been sown, but its harvest hasn’t yet come. 29 If therefore that which is sown isn’t reaped, and if the place where the evil is sown doesn’t pass away, the field where the good is sown won’t come. 30 For a grain of evil seed was sown in the heart of Adam from the beginning, and how much wickedness it has produced to this time! How much more it will yet produce until the time of threshing comes! 31 Ponder now by yourself, how much fruit of wickedness a grain of evil seed has produced. 32 When the grains which are without number are sown, how great a threshing floor they will fill!” 33 Then I answered and said, “How long? When will these things come to pass? Why are our years few and evil?” 34 He answered me, and said, “Don’t hurry faster than the Most High; for your haste is for your own self, but he who is above hurries on behalf of many.
70–132 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 4 Ezra

References

"... The apocalyptic book 4 Ezra, often called 2 Esdras, or the Apocalypse of Ezra, is a writing of Jewish origin stemming from the period after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. The book is designed as a profound aid for Jews to cope with the reality of Roman emperors persecuting the pious. In that context, the history of Israel is retold, especially stressing human inability to fathom the ways of God. This inability is then connected with the concept of evil. Sin is not seen as an act of a freely operating human, but as the inevitable outcome of the sowing of the bad seed. Later in the Book of 4 Ezra a desperate question is raised ... It is remarkable to see that Eve is never mentioned in 4 Ezra. The ideas of the author of IV Ezra are not remote to those of St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans ... The rest of the Epistle to the Romans makes clear that Paul construes human wrongdoing as original or inherited sin. Here, and elsewhere, Adam is seen by Paul as responsible for the sinful condition of mankind ..."
Bob Becking, “Signs from the Garden: Some Remarks on the Relationship between Eve and Adam in Genesis 2–3,” in Enigmas and Images: Studies in Honor of Tryggve N. D. Mettinger, ed. Göran Eidevall and Blaženka Scheuer, ConBOT 58 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2011), 22–36.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Romans 5:12 and 4 Ezra 4:30

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