5:12
We have been reconciled with God through the death of Christ. Now the question that Paul seems to anticipate is how can life and death of one man bring life into the whole world? Paul points out here that that is entirely consistent with Jewish thought, for Jewish teaching was that sin and death came into the world through one man, Adam. “Death spread to all men because all sinned”. Adam is seen as the head of the human race. Note that Paul says death spread because all sinned. The doctrine of original sin is not a simple matter of all of us inheriting sinfulness, there is more to it than that. We have all sinned, we are all guilty.
5:13
This verse is quite difficult to interpret, but part of what I think it is saying is that the Jews put a wrong interpretation upon the Law. Sin existed before the Law, sin existed from the time of Adam. The penalty of sin, namely death, existed right from the time of Adam, many years before the Law was given. “But sin is not counted where there is no law”. I have to say that the two or three commentaries I have read on this are not that helpful on this phrase! We can all agree on what it does not mean, but none of them seem to have much of any depth to say on what it does mean.
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