Definition
Original sin is the theological teaching that Adam’s sin was not merely an individual act but transmitted consequences to all humanity. The nature of that transmission is contested: did humanity receive a sinful nature (infusion, Augustinian-Roman Catholic), was the guilt of Adam’s sin imputed to humanity (Reformed), or was only mortality transferred as a legal consequence (Jones)? In the corpus the line runs sharply between Jones (imputation ≠ infusion; original sin = inherited liability) and Warnock (Augustinian imputation model with strong emphasis on personal responsibility).
Usage in the corpus
Stephen Jones
Jones draws a sharp distinction between imputation and infusion: “Man did not inherit a sin nature from Adam. He merely inherited the liability for Adam’s sin.” What was transmitted is not a sinful soul but mortality as the consequence of imputed guilt: “The only thing passed down is MORTALITY, or Death. We are not mortal because we sin. We sin because we are mortal.” He also rejects Jerome’s rendering of eph’ ho (Rom. 5:12) as “because all sinned” — the correct reading is “on which [death] all sinned.” The soteriological implication is far-reaching: because Adam’s guilt was imputatively laid on all, it is both just and necessary for God to imputatively lay Christ’s righteousness on all (Rom. 5:18): “all men who died in Adam” must be saved in Christ. [Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, Ch. 9; The Restoration of All Things, Ch. 5]
George Warnock
Warnock employs a model closer to the Augustinian tradition: original sin is an unbroken chain reaching back to Adam, but God broke that chain at the cross. The crucial difference from a fatalistic model is that Warnock directly links the inheritance to personal responsibility: “It was indeed Adam’s fault. But now it is my fault. I cannot blame Adam, nor my ancestors, nor my parents… it is now my fault.” Scriptural basis: Ps. 51:5 (“in sin did my mother conceive me”). [Warnock, The Hyssop that Springeth Out of the Wall, hyssop2b.html]
Warnock also formulates original sin as an imputative parallel between Adam and Christ: “we inherit the power of grace from the Lord Jesus, as we inherit the curse of sin from Adam; that we have God’s righteousness in Christ by imputation, just as we have Adam’s sin and death by imputation.” [Warnock, Evening and Morning, Ch. 2]
E.W. Bullinger
Bullinger encodes original sin typographically via the defective spelling of toledoth: the eleven occurrences relating to Adam’s descendants all bear the mark of deficiency, in contrast to the pre-fall creation (Gen. 2:4) and the eschatological lineage to David (Ruth 4:18). [Bullinger, Number in Scripture, Part I, Ch. II]