Genesis 2:17

2:17 but ¹  you must not eat ²  from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when ³  you eat from it you will surely die.” ⁴ 

Genesis 3:17-19

3:17 But to Adam ⁵  he said,

“Because you obeyed ⁶  your wife

and ate from the tree about which I commanded you,

‘You must not eat from it,’

cursed is the ground ⁷  thanks to you; ⁸ 

in painful toil you will eat ⁹  of it all the days of your life.

3:18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,

but you will eat the grain ¹⁰  of the field.

3:19 By the sweat of your brow ¹¹  you will eat food

until you return to the ground, ¹² 

for out of it you were taken;

for you are dust, and to dust you will return.” ¹³ 

Psalms 9:17

9:17 The wicked are turned back and sent to Sheol; ¹⁴ 

this is the destiny of ¹⁵  all the nations that ignore ¹⁶  God,

Romans 5:12-21

The Amplification of Justification

5:12 So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people ¹⁷  because ¹⁸  all sinned – 5:13 for before the law was given, ¹⁹  sin was in the world, but there is no accounting for sin ²⁰  when there is no law. 5:14 Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam (who is a type ²¹  of the coming one) transgressed. ²²  5:15 But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. ²³  For if the many died through the transgression of the one man, ²⁴  how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply to the many! 5:16 And the gift is not like the one who sinned. ²⁵  For judgment, resulting from the one transgression, ²⁶  led to condemnation, but ²⁷  the gracious gift from the many failures ²⁸  led to justification. 5:17 For if, by the transgression of the one man, ²⁹  death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ!

5:18 Consequently, ³⁰  just as condemnation ³¹  for all people ³²  came ³³  through one transgression, ³⁴  so too through the one righteous act ³⁵  came righteousness leading to life ³⁶  for all people. 5:19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man ³⁷  many ³⁸  were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man ³⁹  many ⁴⁰  will be made righteous. 5:20 Now the law came in ⁴¹  so that the transgression ⁴²  may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more, 5:21 so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6:21-23

6:21 So what benefit ⁴³  did you then reap ⁴⁴  from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. 6:22 But now, freed ⁴⁵  from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit ⁴⁶  leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life. 6:23 For the payoff ⁴⁷  of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Revelation 20:14-15

20:14 Then ⁴⁸  Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death – the lake of fire. 20:15 If ⁴⁹  anyone’s name ⁵⁰  was not found written in the book of life, that person ⁵¹  was thrown into the lake of fire.

[2:17]  ¹ tn The disjunctive clause here indicates contrast: “but from the tree of the knowledge….”

[2:17]  ² tn The negated imperfect verb form indicates prohibition, “you must not eat.”

[2:17]  ³ tn Or “in the very day, as soon as.” If one understands the expression to have this more precise meaning, then the following narrative presents a problem, for the man does not die physically as soon as he eats from the tree. In this case one may argue that spiritual death is in view. If physical death is in view here, there are two options to explain the following narrative: (1) The following phrase “You will surely die” concerns mortality which ultimately results in death (a natural paraphrase would be, “You will become mortal”), or (2) God mercifully gave man a reprieve, allowing him to live longer than he deserved.

[2:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “dying you will die.” The imperfect verb form here has the nuance of the specific future because it is introduced with the temporal clause, “when you eat…you will die.” That certainty is underscored with the infinitive absolute, “you will surely die.”

[3:17]  ⁵ tn Since there is no article on the word, the personal name is used, rather than the generic “the man” (cf. NRSV).

[3:17]  ⁶ tn The idiom “listen to the voice of” often means “obey.” The man “obeyed” his wife and in the process disobeyed God.

[3:17]  ⁷ sn For the ground to be cursed means that it will no longer yield its bounty as the blessing from God had promised. The whole creation, Paul writes in Rom 8:22, is still groaning under this curse, waiting for the day of redemption.

[3:17]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew phrase בַּעֲבוּרֶךָ (ba’avurekha) is more literally translated “on your account” or “because of you.” The idiomatic “thanks to you” in the translation tries to capture the point of this expression.

[3:17]  ⁹ sn In painful toil you will eat. The theme of eating is prominent throughout Gen 3. The prohibition was against eating from the tree of knowledge. The sin was in eating. The interrogation concerned the eating from the tree of knowledge. The serpent is condemned to eat the dust of the ground. The curse focuses on eating in a “measure for measure” justice. Because the man and the woman sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, God will forbid the ground to cooperate, and so it will be through painful toil that they will eat.

[3:18]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew term עֵשֶׂב (’esev), when referring to human food, excludes grass (eaten by cattle) and woody plants like vines.

[3:19]  ¹¹ tn The expression “the sweat of your brow” is a metonymy, the sweat being the result of painful toil in the fields.

[3:19]  ¹² sn Until you return to the ground. The theme of humankind’s mortality is critical here in view of the temptation to be like God. Man will labor painfully to provide food, obviously not enjoying the bounty that creation promised. In place of the abundance of the orchard’s fruit trees, thorns and thistles will grow. Man will have to work the soil so that it will produce the grain to make bread. This will continue until he returns to the soil from which he was taken (recalling the creation in 2:7 with the wordplay on Adam and ground). In spite of the dreams of immortality and divinity, man is but dust (2:7), and will return to dust. So much for his pride.

[3:19]  ¹³ sn In general, the themes of the curse oracles are important in the NT teaching that Jesus became the cursed one hanging on the tree. In his suffering and death, all the motifs are drawn together: the tree, the sweat, the thorns, and the dust of death (see Ps 22:15). Jesus experienced it all, to have victory over it through the resurrection.

[9:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the wicked turn back to Sheol.” The imperfect verbal form either emphasizes what typically happens or describes vividly the aftermath of the Lord’s victory over the psalmist’s enemies. See v. 3.

[9:17]  ¹⁵ tn The words “this is the destiny of” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. The verb “are turned back” is understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line).

[9:17]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “forget.” “Forgetting God” refers here to worshiping false gods and thereby refusing to recognize his sovereignty (see also Deut 8:19; Judg 3:7; 1 Sam 12:9; Isa 17:10; Jer 3:21; Ps 44:20). The nations’ refusal to acknowledge God’s sovereignty accounts for their brazen attempt to attack and destroy his people.

[5:12]  ¹⁷ tn Here ἀνθρώπους (anqrwpou") has been translated as a generic (“people”) since both men and women are clearly intended in this context.

[5:12]  ¹⁸ tn The translation of the phrase ἐφ᾿ ᾧ (ef Jw) has been heavily debated. For a discussion of all the possibilities, see C. E. B. Cranfield, “On Some of the Problems in the Interpretation of Romans 5.12,” SJT 22 (1969): 324-41. Only a few of the major options can be mentioned here: (1) the phrase can be taken as a relative clause in which the pronoun refers to Adam, “death spread to all people in whom [Adam] all sinned.” (2) The phrase can be taken with consecutive (resultative) force, meaning “death spread to all people with the result that all sinned.” (3) Others take the phrase as causal in force: “death spread to all people because all sinned.”

[5:13]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “for before the law.”

[5:13]  ²⁰ tn Or “sin is not reckoned.”

[5:14]  ²¹ tn Or “pattern.”

[5:14]  ²² tn Or “disobeyed”; Grk “in the likeness of Adam’s transgression.”

[5:15]  ²³ tn Grk “but not as the transgression, so also [is] the gracious gift.”

[5:15]  ²⁴ sn Here the one man refers to Adam (cf. 5:14).

[5:16]  ²⁵ tn Grk “and not as through the one who sinned [is] the gift.”

[5:16]  ²⁶ tn The word “transgression” is not in the Greek text at this point, but has been supplied for clarity.

[5:16]  ²⁷ tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two clauses more than can be easily expressed in English.

[5:16]  ²⁸ tn Or “falls, trespasses,” the same word used in vv. 15, 17, 18, 20.

[5:17]  ²⁹ sn Here the one man refers to Adam (cf. 5:14).

[5:18]  ³⁰ tn There is a double connective here that cannot be easily preserved in English: “consequently therefore,” emphasizing the conclusion of what he has been arguing.

[5:18]  ³¹ tn Grk “[it is] unto condemnation for all people.”

[5:18]  ³² tn Here ἀνθρώπους (anqrwpou") has been translated as a generic (“people”) since both men and women are clearly intended in this context.

[5:18]  ³³ tn There are no verbs in the Greek text of v. 18, forcing translators to supply phrases like “came through one transgression,” “resulted from one transgression,” etc.

[5:18]  ³⁴ sn One transgression refers to the sin of Adam in Gen 3:1-24.

[5:18]  ³⁵ sn The one righteous act refers to Jesus’ death on the cross.

[5:18]  ³⁶ tn Grk “righteousness of life.”

[5:19]  ³⁷ sn Here the one man refers to Adam (cf. 5:14).

[5:19]  ³⁸ tn Grk “the many.”

[5:19]  ³⁹ sn One man refers here to Jesus Christ.

[5:19]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “the many.”

[5:20]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “slipped in.”

[5:20]  ⁴² tn Or “trespass.”

[6:21]  ⁴³ tn Grk “fruit.”

[6:21]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “have,” in a tense emphasizing their customary condition in the past.

[6:22]  ⁴⁵ tn The two aorist participles translated “freed” and “enslaved” are causal in force; their full force is something like “But now, since you have become freed from sin and since you have become enslaved to God….”

[6:22]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “fruit.”

[6:23]  ⁴⁷ tn A figurative extension of ὀψώνιον (oywnion), which refers to a soldier’s pay or wages. Here it refers to the end result of an activity, seen as something one receives back in return. In this case the activity is sin, and the translation “payoff” captures this thought. See also L&N 89.42.

[20:14]  ⁴⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[20:15]  ⁴⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[20:15]  ⁵⁰ tn The word “name” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[20:15]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “he”; the pronoun has been intensified by translating as “that person.”