JMNT(i)
7 What, then, shall we say (or: declare)? [
Is]
the Law (or: custom)
sin (error; failure to hit the target; deviation from the goal)?
Certainly not (May it not come to be)!
Instead (or: But rather)
I did not (or: do not)
at any point experientially and intimately know the Sin, if not through Law ([= Torah]; or: custom).
For besides, I had not seen and thus had not known (become conscious of)
the full passion (earnest desire; lust; coveting; emotion upon something)
if the Law and the custom were not continuously saying (or: except the [Torah] kept on saying),
"You will continue not putting strong emotions upon something (or: You shall not repeatedly have a strong impulse or desire; You will not constantly crave or covet [other folks' possessions or their gods]).
" [
Ex. 20:17;
Deut. 5:21; comment: the "I" of this passage = Adam (
Gen. 3) /Israel (
Ex. 32) /Paul (in his pre-Christian experience)]
8 Yet the Sin (or: the failure; the error; the mistake; the missing of the target; the deviation from the goal),
taking (receiving in the hand and thus, getting)
a starting point (a base of operation; an occasion; a means of beginning)
through the implanted goal (impartation of the finished product within; inward directive; commandment [to Adam, then to Israel]),
works (or: worked)
down to effect and produce within me every full passion, strong impulse, over-desire and craving emotion upon things – for apart from Law (or: a custom; or: [Torah])
sin (error; failure; missing the target) [
is]
dead (or: [was] lifeless).
9 Now I was at one time (or: formerly)
habitually living apart from Law (or: I was once alive, independent from custom and [Torah]);
yet, in connection with the coming of the implanted goal (of the impartation of the finished product within; of the inward commandment and directive),
the Sin becomes alive again (or: deviation, failure, error and the missing of the target revived and comes back to life),
but I die (or: and I died; yet I die).