Is the law sin? (ο νομος αμαρτια?). A pertinent query in view of what he had said. Some people today oppose all inhibitions and prohibitions because they stimulate violations. That is half-baked thinking.

I had not known sin (την αμαρτιαν ουκ εγνων). Second aorist indicative of γινωσκω, to know. It is a conclusion of a second class condition, determined as unfulfilled. Usually ανis used in the conclusion to make it plain that it is second class condition instead of first class, but occasionally it is not employed when it is plain enough without as here (John 16:22; John 16:24). See on Galatians 4:15. So as to

I had not known coveting (lust), επιθυμιαν ουκ ηιδειν. But all the same the law is not itself sin nor the cause of sin. Men with their sinful natures turn law into an occasion for sinful acts.