In Front | Workbook: Original Sin in Western and Eastern Christianity, Part 2

The original Greek text, which is reflected in the NIV version above and other modern Bibles, suggests simply that “death came to all people, because all sinned.” The Latin reading, with “in whom” in place of “because,” connects that last clause with an earlier part of the verse—the “one man . . . in whom all sinned.”

This may seem academic, but it has had a significant practical impact on the history of Christian theology, and the way Western and Eastern Christians have come to understand the doctrine of original sin. 

Western Christianity, believing we “sinned in Adam” developed the idea that we, as Adam’s offspring, were in a real way present in that first sin, and that we are accountable for that first sin in a personal way still today. In this view, Adam was our collective representative and we are guilty for his sin just as much as he is. In this view, we all have an inherited guiltiness for Adam’s original sin in addition to a sin nature, or a “heart curved inward,” that inclines us to do wrong. Humanity from birth in this view has both a sin nature and a sin guilt that needs to be accounted for.

Eastern Christianity, believing we “sinned like Adam” but not “in him,” tends to believe that we were not present or represented in Adam’s original sin. In this view, we inherit Adam’s inclination to sin but are not personally accountable for it today. In other words, we inherit his sin nature, but not his sin guilt. Because of the difference in these two views, the Eastern view of original sin has at times been termed “ancestral sin” to distinguish it from the Western alternative. The term suggests that although Adam’s original sin is not our original sin, it is our ancestral sin, a sin committed by our common ancestor that affects us still today.

In short, the main distinction between the two is between believing we’ve sinned in Adam or like Adam, as we suggested with the two different readings of Romans 5:12 at the top of the page.

In spite of their different views of original sin, both Eastern and Western Christianity have agreed that human nature was negatively affected by Adam’s sin in the garden of Eden. Both traditions also agree that humanity became inclined to sin through the first or “original” sin. Martin Luther’s reference to “humanity curved in on itself,” or the “heart curved inward,” to describe humanity’s post-Eden inclination away from God in selfishness and disobedience, is a universal Christian idea.

And both traditions agree that Jesus has redeemed us from our fallen state, where we were alienated from God and condemned to Adam’s inheritance. “While we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10 NIV). In Christ, the “second man” (1 Corinthians 15:47), “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand” (Romans 5:1-2 NIV). “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22 NIV).  

References: 

David Weaver, “From Paul to Augustine: Roman’s 5:12 in Early Christian Exegesis,” St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 27.3 (1983), pp. 187-206.

David Weaver, “The Exegesis of Romans 5:12 among the Greek Fathers and Its Implication for the Doctrine of Original Sin: The 5^th–12^th Centuries (Part II),” St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 27.4 (1983), pp. 133-159.

avid Weaver, “The Exegesis of Romans 5:12 among the Greek Fathers and Its Implication for the Doctrine of Original Sin: The 5^th–12^th Centuries (Part III),” St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 28.1 (1984), pp. 231-257.