Romans 5:13 : "For until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law." In the Greek text there is no the before law in this verse. When Paul referred to the law of Moses, he generally, if not always, put the before law. But what does "until law" mean? R. St. John Parry, in his explanatory notes to the Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges, says that the phrase in question "equals just so far as there was law, there was sin. It has been shown (2:14, 15) that there was law, in a certain and true sense, before the law given to Moses. . . .So I take it achri nomou equals, up to the degree of law, just to the extent to which law was present." There has never been a people who were not under the moral law. From Adam on down the ages people have been under that law, have violated that law, and were, therefore, sinners. The fact that sin was in the world proves that there was law, for people are not counted sinners when there is no law. Paul's statement that sin is not imputed when there is no law is equal to his statement that where there is no law there is no transgression. People who were not circumcised before the law of circumcision was given were not counted sinners for their failure to be circumcised, and so with any other positive command, or law. Nothing is plainer than that there was law be-fore the law of Moses was given, and that people were sinners during that time, but they were sinners only to the extent of the law which they had.