Sin

In Romas 3, Paul proves that all humankind – Jew and Gentiles, religious and pagan – have sinned.  Both testaments have large and interesting vocabularies for the various forms of sin, showing how important a fact of human life sin really is.

The following paragraphs treat several of these words in the order of frequency of usage.  Sin is seen as the following things :

Falling Short ( hamartia, hamartēma, hamartanō, etc )

This word-group is the broadest and most frequent in the NT, occurring over 250 times.   The root idea is failing, missing the mark, “[falling] short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).  The most general word is harmatia, which can be sin in general or a specific act of sin.  The similar word hamartēma stresses individual acts.   The heretic Pelagius misquoted the golden-tongued preacher Chrysostom as saying that infants are without sins.   He should have checked the original Greek of that great preacher.  What he really said was “that infants were innocent of hamartēmata, individual acts of sin, and were not free from harmatia, which was sin in general” (Nigel Turner, Christian Words, p.413)

Unrighteousness, Iniquity ( adikia, adikos, etc )

This basic meaning of these words is “injustice” or “dishonesty” in classical Greek, and the common translations of the verb (adikeō) are “to do wrong”, “to be unjust”, “to hurt”.  Adikia is the opposite of uprightness.  A famous passage using this word is 1John 1:9 : “If we confess our sins, He is faithfull and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Trespass ( paraptōma )

Trespass ( paraptōma ), occuring twenty-one times in the NT. is used in one popular rendition of the Lord's Prayer : “Forgive us our trespasses.”  It means to fall ( piptō ) when one should have resisted a temptation or maintained a spiritual walk.  James tells us, “confess you sins [trespasses] to one another, and pray for one another” (5:16)

Iniquity ( anomia )

Occuring fourteen times, anomia literally means, “lawlessness”, though the word is generally translated “iniquity in the KJV tradition.  1John 3:4 uses anomia as a definition of sin.

Transgression ( parabasis )

Occurring only 7 times, parabasis means “violating a specific law’.  To trangress is to cross a line that God has drawn; it is a specific disobedience of a command.

Ungodliness ( asebeia, etc )

The noun for ungodliness occurs 6 times, the verb twice, and the adjective 10 times.  Just as eusebeia ( eu = good and sebeia = worship ) means “piety”, “godliness”, or “religion”, so this is the same root with the negative prefix a- ( as in atheist = “no God” ).  Asebeia is the impiety and irreverence of the village atheist, living in rebellion against God and godly standards.   It is irreligion in general.  Jude, quoting an ancient prophecy of Enoch preserved by the Holy Spirit, uses all three forms of this word in a trenchant way ( vv.15-18 ).

Debt ( opheilēma )

Debt ( opheilēma ) occurs in the sense of a sin in Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” ( Matt 6:12 ).  Debts that we owe to God are sins.

Disobedience ( parakoē )

Disobedience ( parakoē ) occurs 3 times, including the very central passage on how sin entered our world : by one man's disobedience ( Rom 5:19 ).  The root idea is to neglect to hear and heed God’s commands.

Ignorance ( agnoēma )

Ignorance ( agnoēma ), sins commited inadvertently ( Heb 9:7 ), nevertheless need atonement by blood.  Ignorance is no excuse.

In face af all these words, which point out our shortcomings, we find the promise of 1John 1:7 reassuring :”The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

Source : The New Open Bible, Study Edition, 1990, Thomas Nelson, Inc.