In Greek this verse begins with a negative statement (see Revised Standard Version “and the free gift is not like the effect of that one man’s sin”), which is changed into a positive statement by the Good News Translation and others (and there is a difference between God’s gift and the sin of one man; see Jerusalem Bible “the results of the gift also outweigh the results of the one man’s sin”).

The first sentence of verse 16 is essentially similar to the second clause of verse 15 and may, in fact, be translated in essentially the same way, though with perhaps slightly different wording in order to avoid an apparent duplication. But the closest equivalent may simply be “the way in which God gives freely to men is very different from the way in which one man sinned.”

At this point the analogy with Adam breaks down. After his one sin came the judgment of “Guilty”; but after so many sins comes the undeserved gift of “Not guilty!” In this way Paul demonstrates the superiority of God’s grace over Adam’s sin. Grace had a much more difficult road to travel than sin had. To use an illustration from everyday life, it is much easier for an infection to spread than it is to cure the infection once it has spread throughout the body.

Many sins refers to the sins of those persons who lived after Adam, and not to the sins of Adam himself, and so confirms the judgment reached in verse 12 regarding the clause because all men sinned.

In relation to words such as sin, judgment, and gift, one may need to introduce participants and employ verb expressions—for example, “after Adam sinned God judged him as guilty; but after so many people have sinned God shows his grace to them by saying, You are not guilty” or “… God gives them what they do not deserve by saying to them, You are not guilty.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .