Charles Ellicott Commentary Romans 5:14

"Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of Adam`s transgression, who is a figure of him that was to come." — Romans 5:14 (ASV)

After the similitude of Adam’s transgression—that is, “in direct defiance of divine command.” They had not incurred just punishment as Adam had, and yet they died. Why? Because of Adam’s sin, the effects of which extended to them all, just in the same way as the effects of the death of Christ extend to all.

Who is the figure.—Better, type. There is thus hinted at the parallelism which was omitted in Romans 5:12. Adam was the type of Christ, his sin and its effects the type of Christ’s death and its effects. No doubt the way in which this point is introduced is, in a mere rhetorical sense, faulty.

St. Paul was, however, much above caring for rhetoric. And besides, it must be remembered that he wrote by dictation and, probably, never revised what the amanuensis had written. This fact has very rightly been insisted on by Dr. Vaughan (Preface to Third Edition, p. 22), “We must picture to ourselves in reading this profound Epistle to the Romans a man full of thought, his hands, perhaps, occupied at the moment in stitching at the tent-cloth, dictating one clause at a time to the obscure Tertius beside him, stopping only to give time for the writing, never looking it over, never, perhaps, hearing it read over, at last taking the pen into his hand to add the last few words of affectionate benediction.”