12 Therefore, as by one man sin entered into the
world, and death came through sin, and death spread to all because all have
sinned.

13 Even in the time of the law, sin was in the
world. But sin is not regarded as long as there is no law.

14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to
Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who
is similar of he that is to come.

15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if
through the trespass of one, many died, then much more surly have the grace of
God and the free gift of grace which was given by one man, Jesus Christ.

16 And the gift is not over one man’s sin as
death came through one trespass. For damnation came of one trespass, but the
gift came to justify for many trespasses.

17 For if by the trespass of one, death reigned
by the means of one. Much more shall those who receive the abundance of grace and
the free gift of righteousness reign in life by the means of one, Jesus Christ.

18 Likewise as by the trespass of one led to
condemnation of all men, the righteousness of one brings justification and life
to all men.

19 For as by one man’s disobedience, many became
sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

20 But the law entered in and the trespass
increased. But where there was an abundance of sin, there was more plentiful grace.

21 So that as sin reigned death, grace will
reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Rationale

               From
the start, I knew I wanted to do a sense-by-sense translation. To me, the Bible
is a text that is more than just the words on the pages. It is a living text
that can be applied to people of all places and time. This is why I thought it
best to make sure the message as a whole was translated instead of each word
individually. Word-by-word translations can often lose meaning because
languages are so complex and unique. However, I cannot overlook the importance
of word-by-word translations. They provide insight to how the original text was
written, perhaps more true to divine inspiration. While I believe the most
important part of translations is getting the correct message across, the
wording should still be as close to the original as possible.

               The
Tyndale translation was useful for the time it was written because it was the
first English translation from Hebrew and Greek texts. However, it loses a lot
of power on today’s reader because of the many alternate spellings and sentence
structure that can be very distracting. For this reason, I wanted to make the
passages more understandable but stick to the most truthful version of them. When
first reading the Tyndale version, I had my personal Bible, a New Revised
Standard Version, next to me for clarification. I tried to combine the clearer
message from that translation with the word order of Tyndale’s.

               In
verse 14, I decided to change the world similitude to similar. Similitude is “a person or thing resembling, or having the likeness of, some
other person or thing; a counterpart or equal; a similarity” (“similitude, n.”).
This is one example of how I wanted to make it easier for the reader to understand
what is being said. The NRSV says “who is a type of the one who was to come.” I
felt that this phrasing strayed too much from what was intended.

               One of the
most difficult part of the translation was determining if it was better to use
sin or trespass. The OED definitions for both sin and trespass included the
word “transgression.” The OED definition for transgression included the words
sin and trespass. It seemed to be a cycle of confusion, and perhaps trivial.
However, since the NRSV uses “sin” in one verse then “trespass” in the next, I
wanted to understand the difference that someone at some point must have seen. In
verses 15-18, I chose to use trespass rather than sin because the second
definition of sin from the OED is what stood out to me. It says sin is a “state
of transgression against God” (“sin, n.”). Since a sin is both an act and a state
of being, I wanted to be clear that Adam’s sin Paul was referring to was an
act.

               According to
the Rapinchuk article, many scholars use this passage to back up the idea of
original sin. People take Paul’s words about Adam’s sin spreading to all as
reasonable evidence that humans are inherently bad. Rapinchuk argues that when
Paul speaks of all men he is referring to Jews and Gentiles, not every
individual (Rapinchuk).  Paul’s audience
is to Jews and Gentiles in Rome, but nowhere in this passage does he refer to
these two specific groups. It is for that reason that I am convinced Paul is
talking about individuals. I do agree with Rapinchuk that this passage does not
give a definitive answer about original or inherited sin. It should be read as
is and interpreted as all are affected by Adam’s sin but all affected can also
be granted grace through Jesus.

Works Cited

Rapinchuk, Mark. UNIVERSAL SIN AND
SALVATION IN ROMANS 5:12-21(n.d.): n. pag. JETS.Sept.
1999. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.

"similitude, n." OED Online.
Oxford University Press, December 2014. Web. 26 February 2015.

"sin, n." OED Online.
Oxford University Press, December 2014. Web. 26 February 2015.