Daniel's Literal Translation and Commentary
The nature of sin and death
"12 Therefore, just as through one man, sin into the world does enter, and through sin, death, and so to all men death does come about, because of which all do sin, 13 For until a norm, sin was occurring in the world, but sin is not being thought about, there not being a norm, 14 but reigns death from Adam at least as far as Moses even over those who do not sin in the like fashion of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one coming. " (DLT: torahtimes.org, Rom. 5:12-14).
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Why translate νομος as a "norm" here? Simply because that is its basic meaning in Greek (cf. BDAG Lexicon, 3rd ed., def. 1). It is a very flexible term in Koine, which I have explained elsewhere. It's meaning must be exegeted according to the context. Here Paul is talking about a norm in the sense of a standard against which to compare right and wrong.
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The norm is not necessarily a written standard. It need only be spoken and understood. This is the sort of commandment that was given to Adam, and even the children of Israel on the average heard the commandments, but did not read them.
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What Paul is doing here is disconnecting the nature of sin and death from conscious violation of a commandment, at least down the line from a sin that began with the violation of the standard. He is showing that death is a force of its own, that once set loose, does not require conscious rebellion to operate. Paul needs to do this to show that sin and death transcend any finite list of commandments or standards of behavior. It is one way to show that none measure up. God may have given 613 commandments, but where are the 6130 applications that are not thought about?
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It is mistakenly thought that Paul's purpose in introducing the "norm" here is to give a beginning to God's Law. That isn't the reason. Paul is only establishing that sin and death exist outside the realm of conscious violation of the standard, which is a point that the self-righteous need to understand if they are to come to a knowledge of their need for a savior.
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vs. 12. Among men, sin began with Adam. For his transgression was a knowing violation of a standard that God gave. His violation produced more sin and the resulting death in his descendents. Sin is more than rebellion. It is a disease also that is contagious. There was little in the way of "commandment" to blame the resulting sin on after Adam until Moses. It is caught from one's parents and the result is death. The words at the end of vs. 12, "because of which all sin", εφ ω παντες ημαρτον, has been used to teach the doctrine of "original sin", i.e. the idea that when Adam sinned, the blame is automatically transferred to the offspring for his sin. This isn't what Paul is trying to say. In the first place, he would have never used such an ambiguous phrase to make such a point that is outside his main point in the context. In the second place the notion of blaming the descendents for the sins of the fathers is unbiblical (cf. Ezekiel 18). Sin is indeed "visited" on the children, but this is for two reasons, a. sin is contagious, and b. God allows sin to be visited to make an example out of the results of one person's sin on another. This is not so say that guilt is transferable. Not even in Messiah is Yeshua "blamed" for our sins. That would be unjust. Only the penalty is transferable, not the blame. So when the sin nature is visited to the third and fourth generation of the transgressor it is because God is not intervening to impart new life.
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"But sin is not being thought about, there not being a norm". Sin exists without identification. The norm was necessary to identify it as sin. One cannot later take the norm away and think that it will no longer be sin just because it is not identified as sin. No, it is still sin even if the norm is taken away. Paul's whole point is based on sin being sin even in the absence of the standard. So those who believe they will solve the sin problem by eliminating the standard are mistaken.
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Moreover, Paul is not saying that only one commandment existed before the Torah came along to define the righteous standard. There were many commandments given privately and publically by God. There are other commandments implied by God. Ancient man was not a dumb as modern man. That's because modern man is more degenerate than ancient man. Only a hint at what God's will was was enough for a lot of them to understand what it was. Now days God can spread his word everywhere and men will say "what's that?". Paul's point is that sin has its own existence apart from the subjective knowledge that it is wrong.
Daniel's Literal Translation and Commentary: (http://www.torahtimes.org/translation/rom0513.html)
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