for the time being one can consider three elements that all myths have in common7 and these three elements can all be found in Rom. 5:12–21. First, myths deal with problems of human existence. As Dalferth puts it (in the light of Lévi-Strauss) ‘the oppositions which are mediated symbolically in myth are responses to the difficulties of human existence, for instance the fundamental opposition between being and non-being, life and death, nature and culture’.8 The problem of human existence in Rom.