חוֹלָלְתִּי; וּבְחֵטְא, יֶחֱמַתְנִי אִמִּי. David: “Behold, with sin/iniquity I was born, and my mother conceived me with sin.” (Psalm 51:5[7])
The phrase “born in sin” tends to address a circumstance causing or leading up to the birth, like incest, infidelity, or rape, but due to David’s desire for “a clean heart” (v. 10), the preposition בּ more likely meant to be translated “with” in order to indicate the immoral integrity of David when merely a conceived fetus: a sinner. David has confessed that he was born a sinner well before he could even sin. “…Through the one man’s disobedience (all) were made sinners” (Romans 5:19) and as the consequence, “in Adam all died.”(1 Corinthians 15:22)
The first couple’s sin has stained all mankind because each individual conception was, is, or will be formed by Adam’s future sperm fertilizing Eve’s ‘pyramiding egg chain’:
Mark Stoeckle at Rockefeller University and David Thaler at the University of Basel: mitochondrial DNA, snippets of DNA that reside outside the nuclei of living cells, are passed down by mothers from generation to generation. Their every offspring will be destined to “die to die” for being conceived as a sinner:
…death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam… (Romans 5:14)
…all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law. (Romans 2:12)
Each human being has been, is or will be conceived as a sinner, but not because he/she had first sinned. Man sins because he is a sinner. Man’s basic nature is based on his being a sinner, having come about because he is conceived with sin. The natural effect of this immoral nature is that from birth to his life’s end, man is predisposed to sinning.
Adam and Eve had abruptly acquired the knowledge of what death’s effect on them would be. There is no record of their response to indicate they had any remorse or regret for choosing to disobey their Creator, but God’s swift, just response impressed them to seriously respect Him and to not incite His righteous anger again. Their family expanded over the years and observed the practice of making pleasing offerings to Yahweh. On one such occasion, the eldest son’s gift was comprised “of the fruit of the ground” (Genesis 4:3) while that of Abel, a younger brother, was of “fat portions” (Genesis 4:4) from newly born sheep. God approved Abel’s offering but not his brother’s, “because his deeds were evil…”(1 John 3:12) Cain became so enraged that he murdered his brother, the sin for which he received from the Lord the sentence containing both a curse and banishment:
The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground. Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield