Culture, a Kind of "Law" which "Multiplies Sin" --Gil Prost

As a Bible translator to a small dying Amazonian tribe which had no concept of a written, codified law, I came to the conclusion that two of the most mistranslated words in the Bible were found in Romans 5:20. The two Greek words were νόμος absent the article, rendered either as "the Law" or "the law," and the verb παρεισῆλθον, rendered as "came in" both in the New Revised Standard Version and American Standard Version.

The New Revised Standard Version rendered Romans 5:20 as: "But law came in, with the result that the trespass multiplied; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more"; the New American Standard Version as: "The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more."

As a Bible translator, I had to ask myself: What KIND OF "law came in" which "multiplied wrong doing" among the Chácobo? The NASV implied it was the Law of Moses. But as a Bible translator, I was aware that νόμος absent the article could not denote a written codified law system; rather, it denoted an abstract way of living which over time could become established, fixed, and codified as "the law."

Historically, before Greek society became organized politically, that is, before their religious practices, customs, values, traditions and cultural forms were written down and codified “as the embodiment of all that was valid in the affairs of the community,” Greek society operated under what anthropologists refer to as "customary law."

Now the only KIND OF law known to the Chácobo was unwritten "customary law." They called this KIND OF "law" jabi, 'our WAY of doing things.' They called this KIND OF "law" jabi, 'OUR WAY OF DOING THINGS." I'm sure they were puzzled over our WAY OF DOING THINGS, especially why we lived together under one roof.

When the principles, customs, values, and traditions of a society were finally codified as written law, it no longer denoted an abstraction. It became 'the law.' At that point, the Greek article was added to denote a codified law, specifically, Roman Law. Paul also added the article to denote the Law of Moses. Addition of the article signaled a historical shift from the abstract to the concrete, from an abstract law-way shaped by SOCIAL EXISTENCE to a codified law system "which embodied all that was valid in the affairs of the community."

Since the Greek article was absent before νόμος in Romans 5:20, I had to rule out the Law of Moses. Whatever kind of law "came in and multiplied sin" had to be and abstraction as manifest by the absence of the Greek article rather than a codified law system. The Chácobo were absolutely clueless when it came to the existence of various KINDS OF codified written laws, especially Bolivian Law.

The brainteaser became even more challenging when I discovered that the verb παρεισῆλθον, which occurs only twice in the New Testament, had been unexpectedly glossed as "came in" (NRSV)," came in beside (ASV)," "was introduced (GNB)," "was brought in (NIV)," and "was given (NLT)" rather than as: "to come in secretly," "come in by stealth," and “enter secretly, having no primary place in the Divine Plan". So the question became: What KIND OF law secretly crept into history and had no place in the Divine Plan?

Now the reason for the mistranslations became obvious. First, the translators failed to pay attention to the fact that νόμος absent the article should have been rendered as an abstract noun, that is, as SOMETHING that had the quality or characteristics of "law," rather than as SOMETHING tangible and concrete; and secondly, their failure to comprehend that unwritten CULTURAL FORMS, that is, the traditions, values, and customs of a society, have the power to compel a person to act in a prescribed and established way. Today we call it "culture." Unknown to most, culture exists as an abstract KIND OF law.

Over one-hundred years ago, Arthur Slaten recognized the problem, writing,

"The significance of the qualitative usage of nouns [signaled by absence of article] is of extreme importance in the translation and interpretation of the New Testament. That the significance of this usage is not generally recognized is apparent not only in many renderings of the Revised Version, but even in critical commentaries upon the Greek text and in the standard grammars of the New Testament.”

When the article is present, Paul the writer is speaking of a specific law. By "absenting" the Greek article, he is denoting something that has the quality of law. Vόμος in Romans 5:20 has no article. Its absence should affect how we interpret the passage.

Now Roman and Jewish readers of this letter knew that the subject of the verb παρεισῆλθον could not possibly be Jewish law nor Roman law because both kinds of law existed to curb sin rather than "multiply" it. The subject of the verb παρεισῆλθον, ‘sneaked in secretly’ simply cannot denote the Law of Moses or the Ten Commandments because the giving of the Law did not “sneak in.” It came in with “glory” (II Cor. 3:7) because it had a place in the Divine Plan.

The only other occurrence of the verb παρεισῆλθον in Scripture is found in Galatians 2:4 where Judaizers “sneaked in as spies” to the unsuspecting Gentiles churches in Galatia in order to present them with what Paul called “another Gospel," a Gospel demanding they also accept the cultural forms of Jewish culture and submit to circumcision.

So when Paul used the verb “sneaked in” in Romans 5:20, he was informing his readers that chaos producing law-system which had "no primary place in the Divine Plan" had "secretly crept into" human history. These uncodified kinds of law-systems were neither neutral nor positive. They "multiplied sin" and “created matrices [i.e., cultural forms and structures] and environments of moral evil and bequest them to our children.” But not only did these law-systems, or life-ways "multiply sin," they also created cultural barriers to evangelism, church planting, and community development.

Convictions

Failure on part of the translators to recognize that "law" absent the article signified a customary law-way of life rather than a codified law-way of life, led to significant distortions of the intended meaning of Romans 5:20.
What "sneaked into history against the Divine will" and "multiplied sin" were chaos producing social structures, new family types, new life-ways, and new allegiance patterns.
An illustration of such a chaos producing law-system is found among the tribes living in the Vaupes jungles of Northwest Amazon. They practiced linguistic exogamy. This meant every bachelor had to find a spouse who spoke a different language lest he commit incest. The Rule of Exogamy declared that the basic unit of society was the linguist group, not the nuclear family. Now imagine proclaiming a Gospel in which Jesus would be perceived as a bastard! Joseph and Mary spoke the same language.
As a translator paying attention to the absence of the Greek article before νόμος, it became clear that Paul was informing his readers that in the course of history, chaos producing law-scripts had slipped into history, law-scripts using the Rule of Exogamy to protect some freedom suppressing "family" type which increased cultural diversity and "multiplied trespasses."