I have always heard this ascribed to Luther. It is certianly at the
heart of Lutheran theology. If it is original with somone other than
Dr. Martin, I would very much like to have that misconception corrected.
>
> I don't know that theology is avoidable here, but it is intimately bound up
> with understanding the Greek text ANEZHSEN here. The ANA- prefix may mean
> "again" or it may simply mean "up," "upwards" (just as in the
> much-discussed ANWQEN of John 3:3 (EAN MH TIS GENNHQHi ANWQEN, OU DUNATAI
> IDEIN THN BASILEIAN TOU QEOU) where my Baptist friends and others will
> insist that this means "born again," others understand it as "born from
> above" and still others see in it a deliberate _double entendre_.
>
> Then, is ANEZHSEN referring to a single occasion in the writer's personal
> existence? Ostensibly, because it appears in a first-person narrative. But
> is the first-person narrative a literary device? Some would disagree, but I
> personally think that even if it is a personal testimonial it is also a
> literary device describing the fate of EVERYMAN (MAN being used there in a
> generic sense). Or is ANEZHSEN here gnomic, in the sense that when any
> person goes through this process of crushing self-discovery, sin springs to
> life at once? Springs to life anew, just as it has in every human being
> before one's own experience? I'm perfectly willing to understand this as
> original sin being a latent factor that rises to overt condition in the
> course of this shocking self-discovery.
>
> So, if Paul is right in what he says here, I think he is profoundly right
> about us all.
Thanks again Carl for another clear exposition of another Greek text!
John M. Moe