Genesis 5: Cursed Soil

Elie Wiesel notes in his book, "Sages and Dreamers(p. 20) that in Noah's time (ten generations from Adam) the ground is still under a curse. Wiesel correctly observes that this, by all rights, should not be; the sons are not to be punished for the sins of the fathers. In Romans chapter 5 Paul also observes much the same thing, "nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses." Paul is saying that death reigned in these days in order that the generations from Adam to Noah might be wakened from the dead by Jesus Anointed. Death did not reign because of "original sin" or any notion of sin being passed on like a disease down from Adam. Rather, death reigned (prior to the law) in order that death might be thoroughly overcome by grace. This thought is not unprecedented. Consider Micah 5 and the rabbinical commentary on its first few verses (The Jewish Study Bible:Jewish Publication Society, p.1213). The jist is that great hardship ("birthpangs") precede the Messiah. Some of the rabbis preferred not to see the Messiah because of the hardships that would that would come before the advent of the Anointed One.

The death that reigned from Adam to Moses are part of these birthpangs.

Sin is not an inescapable, inevitable disease to Paul but an inexplicable fact that has plagued the generations.