Sin

Sin is the condition or act by which a human person produces evil. Evil is suffering produced by either sin, disease, or accident. Suffering that leads to death and loss of relationship to God is the ultimate evil. The classic Christian list of seven deadly sins includes pride, covetousness, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, and sloth. Islam, led by the Qur'han, sees sin in terms of pride and opposition to God. Iblis or Satan provided the model for human sinning when he refused to obey God's command to prostrate himself before Adam. In an ancient Hindu-Buddhist myth of the fall a primordial disembodied mind living in the golden age descends into a physical body where desire, lust, passion, and covetousness prevail. Others follow, souls taking on flesh. Greed leads to stealing and violence, and the human soul becomes trapped in a physical world of temporal temptation from which it longs to escape to eternity.

Phenomenologically, evil is first experienced biologically as suffering. The most primitive awareness of sin takes the form of defilement, of external contamination deriving from physical contact with what is profane. Rituals of cleansing, usually with water, become the liturgical means for ridding the sinner of defilement. When this becomes internalized, defilement is associated with physical passions welling up from within, with carnal desires that tempt by threatening to overwhelm the rational mind by chaotic passion. Fleshly desires become identified with the lower nature, while mind or soul or spirit becomes identified with the higher nature. The higher nature is where the human will is lodged, and the highest form of sin is a freely willed act of evil.

The Hebrew and Christian scriptures advance no theory of sin, yet examples of sinning abound. Sins corrupt a person's whole heart, and total corruption requires total transformation or renewal by an act of divine grace. Sin applies to the individual heart as well as to a people or nation, warranting transformation of all things into a new creation.

Twentieth-century theologians and psychologists tended to associate the origin of sin with anxiety, anxiety understood existentially as feeling threatened by loss, threatened by dissolution into nonbeing. Death is nonbeing to a human, and the threat of death triggers in the human psyche a panic impulse to steal what it can from the imagined life force. In the moral sphere the pursuit of virtue becomes sinful, as those fleeing anxiety engage in self-justification and scapegoating. To define oneself as virtuous simultaneously requires assigning responsibility for the evil in the world to someone else, usually an enemy; this provides justification for decimating the enemy through gossip, lawsuits, war, or genocide.

Some religious theories associated with sin have been challenged during the era of modern science. The biblical story of Adam and Eve in paradise falling into sin, for example, has long been considered a historical event in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, though interpreted quite differently. With the rise of evolutionary theory and deep time, the idea of a single pair of human progenitors has lost scientific credibility. No sinless paradise would be possible according to evolutionary theory because natural selection and survival of the fittest would necessarily apply at the point of origin. This dilemma has left theologians with two options. One is to deny acceptance to evolutionary theory, the path taken by scientific creationists in American Christianity and fundamentalist Muslims in Turkey. The other is to admit evolutionary theory and deny historicity to the Garden of Eden, the path followed by liberal Protestant Christian and Jewish commentators who see the Adam and Eve story as a myth describing everyday human activity.

A second challenge is indirect, the challenge to human free will from biological reductionism in genetics. During the era of the Human Genome Project, public belief in the determining power of DNA grew, and molecular biologists began to assign genes for not only physical traits but also predispositions to behavior. Antisocial behavior such as a propensity toward alcoholism, aggression, and violence were postulated as genetic in origin, as was homosexuality. Sociobiologists added the idea of the selfish gene, the principle that genes employ human bodies and human culture to insure their own replication through reproduction—their version of survival of the fittest. The fittest are those genes that bring their hosts to reproductive age. This idea allegedly explains why families and clans protect their own kin and are willing to prosecute war or even genocide against others. Moral behavior and religious practices became explainable as the result of genetic expression. Some scientists began to claim they had produced a biological explanation for original sin in the sense of an inherited propensity to survive to reproductive age even if it means perpetrating violence against genetic competitors.

The naturalistic question arises here for theologians. If theological interpretations of sin are compossible with genetic or other forms of biological determinism, one needs to ask: If something is natural is it good? If a doctrine of creation asserts that what exists presently in nature is due to God's will, then biological impulses even toward aggressive behavior must become normative. This is a theological version of what philosophers call the naturalistic fallacy: What is is what ought to be. However, much of traditional spirituality in Asia as well as the West has regarded human biological makeup as the source of misleading desire and dangerous passion; biological determinism would only increase religious resolve to pit the power of the spirit over the power of the flesh.

See also Evil and Suffering; Fall; Genetic Determinism; Selfish Gene; Sociobiology

Bibliography

medina, john. the genetic inferno: inside the seven deadly sins. new york: cambridge university press, 2000.

o'flaherty, wendy doniger. the origins of evil in hindu mythology. berkeley and los angeles: university of california press, 1976.

peters, ted. sin: radical evil in soul and society. grand rapids, mich.: eerdmans, 1994.

ricoeur, paul. symbolism of evil, trans. emerson buchanan. boston, mass.: beacon, 1967.

suchocki, marjorie hewitt. the fall to violence: original sin in relational theology. new york: continuum, 1994.

tillich, paul. systematic theology. chicago: university of chicago press, 1951–1963.

wright, robert. the moral animal. new york: pantheon, 1994.

ted peters

Sin

Judaism

In the Hebrew scriptures there are three main categories of sin. Ḥet indicates a failure of mutual relations, Pesha indicates a breach in the relationship between two parties. The verb awah (avah) expresses the notion of crookedness. The rabbis used the term averah (passing over), so sin is a passing over or rejection of the will of God. The primary cause of sin is the evil inclination. See also SACRIFICE; TESHUVA; FORGIVENESS.

Christianity

In the New Testament there are distinctive treatments of sin in (i) Paul, for whom sin is a ruling power in the world (Romans 5. 12; Galatians 3. 22) and in people (Romans 6. 6, 7. 14–20); (ii) the Johannine writings, where ‘sin’ is the opposite of ‘truth’ and is related to disbelief in Christ (John 9. 41, 15. 24); and (iii) Hebrews, where it is a disorder atoned for by sacrifices (2. 17, 5. 1). Otherwise the word and its cognates are used without great precision, particularly in expounding the saving work of Christ.

Of later elaborations of the understanding of sin, the most important is probably the concept of original sin. Also important was the development of the penitential system. Social sin has been increasingly recognized as amounting to far more than the sum of individual sins and sinners, as e.g. in Liberation Theology. See also SEVEN DEADLY SINS.

Islam

There are more than ninety words in the Qurʾān for sin or offence against God or one's fellow human beings; it is therefore impossible to summarize the many nuances of sin in Islam. But from that fact alone, it is obvious that the mission of Muḥammad was addressed to humans who are in grave danger because of their propensity to sin. There is no trace of an ab-original fault which affects all subsequent humans. Nevertheless, there are many ways in which humans fall into sin or error, and the Qurʾān offers guidance so that there can be no doubt what behaviour God requires. The Day of Judgement (yaum al-Din) is decided on an exact balance between good and evil acts—though evaluation takes account of niy(y)a (intention). But God is merciful and compassionate, and the way of repentance (tawbah) is always open. Even so, there were those in early Islam who held that a Muslim who sins has become an apostate and therefore no longer belongs to the community (see KHARIJITES).

Hinduism

As in other E. religions, the most radical fault which has to be overcome is not so much sin as ignorance (avidyā). Nevertheless, it is perfectly well recognized that there are behaviours (and thoughts) which are wrong and which might well be called sin, for which the most usual word is pāpa. The foremost of these (pāpātama) is moha. Closely associated are lobha and krodha (anger). The classic texts of dharmaśastra develop an elaborate casuistry, dividing sins into mahāpātakas (great offences) and upapātakas (lesser offences). There are five greater offences: killing a brahman (brāhmaṇahatyā; killing an outcaste is a lesser offence than killing a cow, since there is no dharma of religious consequence in relation to those without caste); drinking intoxicants (surāpāna); stealing (steyam, not in general, but in specified ways); sexual relations with the wife of a guru (guruvaṅganāgama; sometimes interpreted as ‘father’, i.e. against incest); associating with a known sinner (mahāpātakasaṃsārga). The lesser offences are far more varied and differently listed. The way to deal with offences is to undertake penance and make atonement. Penance may range from prāṇāyāma and tapas (to burn out offence) to gifts to brahmans and pilgrimage.

Buddhism

Buddhism does not accept the existence of an omnipotent deity and has no concept of sin as the offence against such a being by the contravention of his will as expressed through revelation or deduced by reason. It does, however (in terms of the doctrine of karma), distinguish clearly between good and evil deeds.

A wrongful thought, word, or deed is one which is committed under the influence of the ‘Three Roots of Evil’ (akusalamūla), namely greed (lobha), hatred (dosa), and delusion (moha). Wrongful actions are designated in various ways: as evil (pāpa), bad (akusala), demeritorious (apuñña), or corrupt (sankiliṭṭha), and all such deeds lead inevitably to a deeper entanglement in the process of suffering and rebirth (saṃsāra) and away from the fulfilment and enlightenment of nirvāna.

sin. The purposeful disobedience of a creature to the known will of God. In the OT it is represented as a constant factor in the experience both of God's people and of the world from the first transgression of Adam and Eve. Ezekiel and Jeremiah proclaim the personal responsibility of each man for his sins. The Psalms are marked by penetrating insights into the personal and emotional effects of sin. In the NT the Lord's teaching makes it clear that its roots lie in a man's character (Mt. 5: 21–5; 15: 18–20). St Paul explains sin as a breach of the natural law written in the conscience of man (Rom. 2: 14–16) and asserts its universality.

Later theology has added little to what is implicit in the Bible. An influential factor in the development of this theology was St Augustine's rejection of the Manichaean doctrine that evil was a substance and the created universe inherently wicked, in favour of the Platonic view that sin is in essence a privation of good. The development of the penitential system in the Middle Ages tended to foster an external view of sin. Rejecting this, M. Luther preached justification by faith alone. Under the secularizing influence of the Enlightenment attempts were made to remove sin from its religious setting and to interpret it as moral evil; in the 19th cent. the notion of sin was largely eliminated from much popular religious teaching. In the 20th century there was renewed emphasis on the gravity of sin (e.g. in Dialectical Theology).

See also ATONEMENT, FALL, ORIGINAL SIN, PENANCE, and REDEMPTION.

sin In the OT ‘sin’ denotes what is unacceptable (to God or humanity), not necessarily disobedience to God, or rebellion against him (as it is in 1 Kgs. 8: 50); not to be equated with crime, which is an offence against society. Anything wrongly related to God is sin (Rom. 14: 23). Idolatry is therefore the supreme sin (Rom. 1: 23). In the NT one Greek word has the meaning ‘missing the mark’ (John 8: 46; Rom. 5: 12). Another means ‘lawlessness’ (2 Cor. 6: 14) or ‘moral depravity’ (1 John 3: 12). When sin came into the world, it provoked God's wrath (Gen. 3: 24) and it is explained that the fact of death is to be ultimately attributed to sin (Gen. 2: 17). Everybody is infected by sin and its guilt, of pride rather than faith (Rom. 5: 12 ff.). The condition is irreversible by human effort (Rom. 7) and it is only by God's initiative that any change is possible (John 3: 3 ff.). Sin was in principle conquered by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and we are released from its suffocating power by our being united to him by faith and baptism.

sin¹ / sin/ • n. an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law: a sin in the eyes of God | the human capacity for sin. ∎  an act regarded as a serious or regrettable fault, offense, or omission: he committed the unforgivable sin of refusing to give interviews | humorous with air like this, it's a sin not to go out. • v. (sinned , sin·ning ) [intr.] commit a sin: I sinned and brought shame down on us. ∎  (sin against) offend against (God, a person, or a principle): I had sinned against my master. PHRASES: (as) —— as sin inf. having a particular undesirable quality to a high degree: as ugly as sin. live in sin inf., dated live together as though married. sin of commission a sinful action. sin of omission a sinful failure to perform an action.DERIVATIVES: sin·less adj. sin·less·ly adv. sin·less·ness n. sin² / sīn/ • abbr. sine.

sin an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law; an act regarded as a serious or regrettable fault, offence, or omission. The word is recorded from Old English (in form synn), and is probably related to Latin sons, sont- ‘guilty’.
it's a sin to steal a pin proverbial saying, late 19th century; meaning that even if what is stolen is of little value, the action is still wrong.
the sin against the Holy Ghost in theological debate, the only sin which may be beyond forgiveness, as indicated in the words of Jesus in Matthew 13:32. In extended modern usage, the phrase may be used for the one thing in a particular context which is seen as beyond toleration.
sin-eater someone traditionally hired to take upon themselves the sins of a deceased person by means of food eaten beside the dead body; the term is recorded from the mid 17th century, in Remains of Gentilism and Judaism by the antiquary John Aubrey (1626–97).

See also charity covers a multitude of sins, Satan rebuking sin, seven deadly sins.

367. Sin

See also 146. EVIL ; 203. HELL ; 205. HERESY ; 349. RELIGION ; 392. THEOLOGY .

hamartiology

Theology. the study or science of the doctrine of sin.

hamartomania

an obsession with sin.

hamartophobia

an abnormal fear of error or sin.

peccancy

1. the state or condition of being sinful or in sin.

2. a sinful act. —peccant, adj.

peccatiphobia, peccatophobia

an abnormal fear of sinning.

simony

the sin or offense of selling or granting for personal advantage church appointments, benefices, preferments, etc. —simonist, n.

sin. Buddhism does not accept the existence of an omnipotent deity and has no concept of sin as the offence against such a being by the contravention of his will as expressed through revelation or deduced by reason. It does, however, in the doctrine of karma, distinguish clearly between good and evil deeds.

sin State or instance of being or acting in a way that is contrary to the ideals of righteousness propounded by a religion. In most religions, sin results from contravening the will of God or the gods as revealed in the code of behaviour upon which the religion rests. See also original sin

Sin , moon god of Semitic origin, worshiped in ancient Middle Eastern religions. One of the principal deities in the Babylonian and Assyrian pantheons, he was lord of the calendar and of wisdom. The chief centers of his worship were at Harran and at Ur, where he was known as Nanna.

sin transgression of the divine law. OE. syn(n) wrongdoing, offence, (also) enmity; :- *sunjō, rel. to OS. sundea, OHG. sunt(e)a, sund(e)a (G. sünde), ON. synd.
So sin vb. OE. syngian (:- *sunniʒōjan), ME. sun(i)gen, singen, repl. by sinne, based on the sb.

Sin1 in the Bible, one of the wildernesses through which the Israelites wandered when they left Egypt. It is not the same as Zin . 2 The town Pelusium , which is rendered Sin in Hebrew.

Sin' (It.). Abbreviation of sino, until, e.g. sin' al segno, until the sign.

Sín [Ir., storm]. Femme fatale in the story of Muirchertach mac Erca.

sin •agin, akin, begin, Berlin, bin, Boleyn, Bryn, chin, chin-chin, Corinne, din, fin, Finn, Flynn, gaijin, gin, Glyn, grin, Gwyn, herein, Ho Chi Minh, in, inn, Jin, jinn, kin, Kweilin, linn, Lynn, mandolin, mandoline, Min, no-win, pin, Pinyin, quin, shin, sin, skin, spin, therein, thin, Tientsin, tin, Tonkin, Turin, twin, underpin, Vietminh, violin, wherein, whin, whipper-in, win, within, Wynne, yin •weigh-in • lutein • lie-in • Samhain •Bowen, Cohen, Owen, throw-in •heroin, heroine •benzoin •bruin, ruin, shoo-in •Bedouin • Islwyn •genuine, Menuhin •cabin, Scriabin •Portakabin • sin bin • swingbin •bobbin, dobbin, robin •haemoglobin (US hemoglobin) •Reuben • dubbin • dustbin • Jacobin •kitchen, lichen •Cochin • urchin

sin (saɪn) Maths. sine