Thomas Aquinas

After the Apostle showed the origin of sin and of death, or the entrance of each into the world, here he manifests what he had said. And first he manifests the saying itself; secondly he manifests the likeness which he was hinting at when he said "therefore as," etc.; thirdly he expounds the likeness, at the words "who is a figure of him who was to come," etc. Now he had said that sin and death passed into all men, and this indeed, according to the exposition of Augustine, he intends to make manifest by the fact that even under the law sin remained, as though the law were not able to exclude it. Concerning which he does two things. First he manifests his proposition as regards sin; secondly, as regards death, at the words "but death reigned," etc. Concerning the first he does two things. First he shows that sin existed even under the law; secondly what the law does concerning sin, at the words "but sin," etc. He says therefore first: it has been said that all sinned in Adam, because not even the law took away sin. "Until the law," that is, even under the law, so that the word "until" is taken inclusively, "sin was in the world," which indeed can be understood of the law of nature and of the law of Moses; and likewise of actual sin and of original sin. For original sin was in the little child until the law of nature, that is, until the use of reason, by which man takes notice of such laws. Psalm 50:6: "in sins my mother conceived me." Nor yet does this sin cease when the law of nature comes upon a man; rather it grows greater by the addition of actual sin, because, as is said in Ecclesiastes 7:21, "there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good," etc. But if we understand it of the law of Moses, then what is said—that sin was in the world until the law—can be understood not only of original sin but also of actual sin; because both before the law and under the law each sin remained, Proverbs 20:9: "who can say: my heart is clean?" But although the law did not take away sin, it nevertheless brought about the knowledge of sin, which before was not known. Whence he adds, "but sin was not imputed." Which indeed is plain, if it be understood of the law of nature. For although original sin is in the little child before the law of nature, and is reckoned to him by God, yet it is not imputed to him among men. But if it be understood of the law of Moses, it is plain as regards certain actual sins, that they were not imputed before the law, such as those which are specially forbidden by the law, which men did not reckon to be sins, as is said in Exodus 20:17: "thou shalt not covet," etc. Yet certain sins were imputed insofar as they were against the law of nature. Whence also in Genesis 39:11 and following, Joseph is read to have been cast into prison on account of the adultery imputed to him. Consequently he treats of death, saying: although sins before the law were not imputed, yet death—namely spiritually, that is, sin or eternal damnation, of which it is said in Psalm 33:21, "the death of the wicked is very evil"—"reigned," that is, exercised its power over men, leading them into damnation, "from Adam," through whom sin entered into the world, "unto Moses," under whom the law was given, John 1:17: "the law was given by Moses." Not only over those who sinned actually, but even over those "who have not sinned, after the similitude of the transgression of Adam," who sinned actually. Hosea 6:7: "but they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant"—there they have dealt treacherously against me—because even children incurred damnation. It can also be understood in this sense of bodily death, through which it is manifested that sin existed even when it was not imputed, as if he were to say: "sin was not imputed," before the law, but from this it is discovered to have existed, because "death reigned," namely bodily death, first indeed by bringing on certain sufferings, for instance hunger and thirst and sickness, and at last by dissolving man wholly, even over those "who have not sinned after the similitude of the transgression of Adam," that is, over children, who did not sin actually: since these too suffer bodily death both before and afterward, according to Psalm 88:47: "what man is he," etc. Ambrose, however, expounded these words otherwise, namely of actual sin only and of the law of Moses. And according to him these words are brought in to manifest that through the first parent sin entered into this world and passed into all. For "until the law," that is, before the law of Moses, "sin was in the world," namely actual sin. For men sinned in many ways against the law of nature. Whence it is said in Genesis 13:13: "the men of Sodom were exceeding wicked." But "sin was not imputed when there was no law," which is to be understood, not that it was not imputed as something to be punished among men, since certain persons are read to have been punished by men before the law for their sins, as is plain in Genesis 39 and 40, but it was not imputed as something to be punished by God. For at that time men did not believe that God either punished or rewarded human deeds, according to Job 22:14: "he walketh about the poles of heaven, and doth not consider our things." But afterward, the law having been divinely given, it became known that sins are imputed by God unto punishment, and not only by men. And therefore, because men did not believe that they would be punished by God for their sins, they sinned freely and without restraint wherever they did not fear human judgment. And therefore he adds: "but death," that is, sin, "reigned," that is, exercised its power in every way, "from Adam unto Moses," exclusively. For through Moses the law was given, which began to diminish the reign of sin, instilling fear of the divine judgment, according to Deuteronomy 5:29: "who shall give them to have such a mind, that they should fear me, and keep all my commandments?" Sin reigned, I say, until Moses, yet not over all, but over those "who have sinned after the similitude of the transgression of Adam." For Ambrose says that in the ancient books this negation "not" is not found, whence he believes it was inserted by corruptors. For Adam indeed believed the promise of the Devil more than the divine threat, as is plain in Genesis 3, and thus in a certain manner preferred the Devil to God. So then, after the similitude of the transgression of Adam, idolaters transgress, who, having abandoned the worship of God, worship the Devil. Over such, then, death, that is, sin, reigned wholly, because it possessed them entirely. But there were, before the law of Moses, true worshippers of God, who, even if they sinned, yet sin did not reign in them, because it did not wholly separate them from God: but they sinned under God, that is, under the faith of the one God, even if they sinned mortally; or under the charity of God, when they sinned venially. From each of these two expositions a third can be compounded, which seems more to pertain to the intention of the Apostle. For he had said that "through one man sin entered into this world," and because sin is the transgression of the divine law, it might seem to someone that this was not true as regards the time before the law, especially since above, in chapter 4:15, he had said: "where there is no law, neither is there transgression." And therefore someone might believe that sin entered into the world not through one man, but rather through the law. And therefore, to exclude this, he says that "until the law," that is, the time before the law, "sin was in the world," both original and actual, yet it was not sin that was known, especially as something to be punished by God. And this is what he adds, "but sin was not imputed," namely as existing against God, "when the law," namely the law divinely given, "was not." For there were some, as the Philosopher says in Ethics V, who believed that nothing is just by nature, and consequently nothing unjust either, but only by the mere positing of human law. And according to this, no sin was imputed, as something existing against God, and especially original sin, that is, it was not known. But that this reckoning of men was false is shown by its effect, because bodily death reigned from Adam, through whom original sin entered into the world, unto Moses, under whom the law was given; and so, since death is the effect of sin, chiefly original sin, it is manifest that before the law there was original sin in the world. And lest anyone say that they died on account of actual sins, to exclude this he says that it reigned even over those who did not sin by their own act, namely children, and even over the just who did not sin mortally, who nevertheless sinned in the first man, as was said above. And therefore he adds, "after the similitude of the transgression of Adam," insofar as they drew the likeness of that sin by origin together with the likeness of nature; as if he were to say that the fact that they died without their own sin demonstrates that in them the likeness of Adam's sin was diffused through origin. And this is what the Apostle intends to manifest, namely that through Adam original sin entered into the world.

Then, when he says "who is a figure of him who was to come," etc., he expounds the likeness which was implied in the adverb "as." Whence he says that "he," namely Adam, "is a form," that is, a certain figure, "of him who was to come," that is, of Christ, yet by contrariety. For as through Adam sin and death entered into the world, so through Christ justice and life entered. 1 Corinthians 15:47: "the first man was of the earth, earthly: the second man, from heaven, heavenly." There are, moreover, also other likenesses between Christ and Adam, namely that as the body of Adam was formed without coitus, so too the body of Christ was formed of a virgin. And as the woman was taken from the side of Adam while he slept, so from the side of Christ, sleeping on the cross, there flowed blood and water, as is said in John 19:34, which signify the sacraments by which the Church was formed.