ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Romans 5.19

Book: Romans · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

17. For if, by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, even Jesus Christ. 18. So then as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation; even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life.

19. For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous.

  1. And the law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly: 21. that, as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:17-21, ASV)
WEB

17. For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so 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. So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life.

19. For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.

  1. The law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly; 21. that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:17-21, WEB)
KJV

17. For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) by one man's: or, by one offence 18. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. by the offence: or, by one offence by the righteousness: or, by one righteousness

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

  1. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: 21. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:17-21, KJV)
YLT

17. for if by the offence of the one the death did reign through the one, much more those, who the abundance of the grace and of the free gift of the righteousness are receiving, in life shall reign through the one, Jesus Christ. 18. So, then, as through one offence to all men [it is] to condemnation, so also through one declaration of 'Righteous' [it is] to all men to justification of life;

19. for as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were constituted sinners: so also through the obedience of the one, shall the many be constituted righteous.

  1. And law came in, that the offence might abound, and where the sin did abound, the grace did overabound, 21. that even as the sin did reign in the death, so also the grace may reign, through righteousness, to life age-during, through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:17-21, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: Paul the Apostle
  • Audience: the Roman house churches (mixed Jewish-Gentile), whom Paul had not yet met
  • Location: Corinth, near the close of the third missionary journey
  • Time period: c. AD 56-57

Theological reading

The summary statement of the Adam-Christ parallel that governs Romans 5:12-21, and the clearest single verse in Paul for representative headship.

The structure is a matched antithesis. Through the one man's parakoē, disobedience, hoi polloi, the many, were constituted sinners; through the one man's hypakoē, obedience, the many will be constituted righteous. The verb in both halves is kathistēmi, to appoint or constitute, which is an official rather than a descriptive term: it establishes a standing rather than reporting a condition. That choice is why the verse is central to Federal Headship and to Original Sin.

Two features carry most of the weight. First, hoi polloi in Semitic idiom means "the many" as opposed to the one, not "many but not all," so the phrase is set against the single representative in each clause rather than restricting the scope. Second, the parallel is deliberately imperfect, and Paul says so through the whole paragraph: the gift is "not like the trespass," it is pollō mallon, much more. The correspondence establishes the mechanism; the asymmetry establishes that grace exceeds what it answers.

The obedience in view is most naturally Christ's whole course culminating at the cross, which Philippians 2:8 describes as obedience unto death. Read that way the verse holds together what the letter has been arguing since chapter 3: righteousness is credited on the basis of another's act, which is why it can be received rather than earned.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

People:

Lexicon:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.