David Bentley Hart on his Revolutionary Translation of Romans 5:12

About this episode

David Bentley Hart discusses his revolutionary translation of Romans 5:12 and its implications for the understanding of original sin.

As promised here is the concluding section of my conversation with David exploring the meaning of the word ‘sin’. In this conclusion we do a deep dive into the text of Romans 5:12 - a pivotal verse for the concept of ‘original sin’ - and David explains how his completely different translation changes the traditional meaning significantly. The traditional meaning is that we all sinned ‘in Adam’ and as a result of that death followed. David’s translation turns that around and implies that it was death that initiated the contagion of sin. It is a good idea to have the text open as you listen, as the discussion is detailed and grammatical. It is not really that difficult as it all hinges on how you translate the Greek preposition ‘epi’ in this context. Talk about a pivot! David explains how the Latin text misled people for centuries, and cemented a distorted interpretation of original sin. Along the way I ask David about one of my bugbears with most translations - including the NIV - which is the gratuitous translation ‘wrath of God’ a few verses earlier. Some of you may know that there is NO ‘of God’ in the Greek - it was just stuffed in to make the point clear!?! It is a crystal…

People in this episode

Guest: David Bentley Hart

Topics covered

• theology
• biblical interpretation
• original sin
• translation
• Christian doctrine

Keywords

• Romans 5:12
• original sin
• translation of Greek
• Latin text
• wrath of God

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Revolutionary Translation of Romans 5:12

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