Reading Romans 5:12 as inherited guilt leads to tensions — e.g., infant salvation, Christ’s sinlessness, and the justice of condemning people for Adam’s act. The verse Romans 5:12 reads

Διὰ τοῦτο ὥσπερ δι’ ἑνὸς ἀνθρώπου ἡ ἁμαρτία εἰς τὸν κόσμον εἰσῆλθεν καὶ διὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ὁ θάνατος, καὶ οὕτως εἰς πάντας ἀνθρώπους ὁ θάνατος διῆλθεν, ἐφ’ ᾧ πάντες ἥμαρτον.

Translation (literal):
“Because of this, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin, death, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”

This final clause, ἐφ’ ᾧ πάντες ἥμαρτον, is the key. Grammatically, ἐφ’ ᾧ is a preposition (epi) with a relative pronoun (hō). The most natural rendering is “because” or “in that.”

• Thus: “death spread to all men because all sinned.” Importantly, Paul does not write “because Adam sinned,” nor “because all were made guilty in Adam,” but rather points to the sin of all people themselves.
• This reading is reinforced by the syntax: the verb ἥμαρτον (hēmarton) is aorist active indicative, “all sinned.” The subject is “all,” not Adam. It indicates that each person actually committed sin. Paul is not saying “all were counted guilty,” but “all sinned.”
• This harmonizes with Romans 3:23: πάντες γὰρ ἥμαρτον (“for all have sinned”).

Nowhere in the Hebrew Bible is universal guilt traced to Adam. If Adam’s guilt were transmitted automatically, Jesus (fully human, descended from Adam through Mary) would also inherit guilt. Traditional appeals to the virgin birth do not solve this, since Mary herself was of Adam.