Use of the Article in Greek

From: RHutchin@aol.com
Date: Wed Aug 05 1998 - 16:46:00 EDT


On another list I found the interchange below. Is the analysis of the Greek
correct and does the argument follow from the analysis?

Q. Am I understanding correctly that you believe there was death before Adam
sinned?

A. Am I to understand that you think that Adam's sin was the first sin in
the
universe? Who was that who came deceiving Eve, and through her Adam,
bringing about the fall of the human race, the entry into the human race of
the sin nature? Note in the Greek Testament the article HE, "the" as it is
used with HAMARTIA, "sin." For the English reader Paul refers in this way
to the nature which entered the human race in the garden in Romans 5:12,12,
20, 21; 6:1, 6, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23; 7:7, 8, 9, 11,
13, 13, 14, 17, 20, 23; 8:2, 3. This combination of the article "the" with
the word "sin" is used a total of 30 times between Romans 5:12 and 8:3! It
carefully distinguishes the sin nature which indwells us (cf. 7:17, 20 and
23), and leads us into acts of sin, from references which specifically are
speaking of individual acts of sin.

Satan had sinned before the temptation in the garden and surely before the
creation of lifeforms on the earth in the 3rd through the 6th solar days of
creation. On the basis of that I allow the possibility that creatures in
the sea, remarkably designed for the killing of other lifeforms, were
created in that way. After all, the Creator's instructions concerning
vegetarian diet specifically are oriented to creatures on the face of the
landmass which was above sea level. By the way, recognizing the
implications of similar language in Genesis 7 will avoid assuming that Noah
and his sons had to build a giant aquarium on the ark.

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