ACC ~ Romans 7 v9

SIN REVIVED AND I DIED. BASIL: When the commandment, i.e., the power of the discernment of the good, came, the mind did not prevail over the baser thoughts but permitted its reason to be enslaved by the passions. Then sin revived but the mind died, suffering death because of its transgressions. EXEGETIC HOMILIES 10.5.

DIODORE: If sin “revived” it is clear that it must have been alive at some earlier point and then died. When was that? It was when the devil deceived and defeated Adam, who had received the commandment and knew what transgression meant.Cain too knew that he was sinning, having been commanded not to murder his brother. It was after that that there was no commandment and no law, and so sin was knocked out by the ignorance of those who committed it. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

LAW INCREASES AWARENESS. CHRYSOSTOM: This looks like a condemnation of the law, but when you look more closely at it you will find that really it is an encomium in praise of the law. For the law did not give existence to a sin which was not there before; rather, it pointed out what had previously escaped notice. This is why Paul is speaking in praise of the law, since before it came people were sinning without realizing it. If they gained nothing else from the law, at least they became aware that they had been sinning. This is no small point if you want to be delivered from wickedness. If they were not in fact set free, this had nothing to do with the law, which framed everything with that end in view. The accusation lies wholly against their spirit, which was perverse beyond all imagining. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 12.

AUGUSTINE: Nothing can be said to revive if it had not been previously alive. TO SIMPLICIAN ON VARIOUS QUESTIONS 1.4.

AUGUSTINE: When he says “I died,” Paul means that he realized that he was already dead, because one who sees through the law what he should do but does not do it sins with transgression. QUESTIONS 66.5.

[PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: Paul says that when he was a child he was not bound by the law. If sin revived, that means that it had previously lived at some point, even before Satan himself rebelled. Paul says that as he grew up he began to be under the law, and the sin which had been dead in him because of his ignorance as a child sprang to life as the law took control. Thus the commandment which was given for life turned out to be a means of death, because of the custom of childhood and the habit of sinning. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

I WAS ONCE ALIVE APART FROM THE LAW. PELAGIUS: Paul means either that he once imagined that he lived as a righteous and free person or that he was alive, at least for the present life. But when the commandment arrived to put an end to forgetfulness, sin was once again recognized, so that everyone who commits it knows that he is dead. Because sin had lived by natural knowledge and died through forgetfulness, it is said to have come back to life through the law. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: We were not righteous before the law came, but given that sin was dead as long as there was no law to condemn it, we lived having the excuse that we did not know what it was that we ought to be doing. EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

THEODORET OF CYR: Adam had no fear of death before he sinned. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

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