Original sin

Original sin is usually understood of the condition of sinfulness (lack of holiness) in which human beings, according to Christian tradition, are born.

The term is also applied, with the definite article ("the original sin"), to mankind's first sin, to which evil effects for the whole human race are attributed. Christians usually refer to this first sin as "the Fall".

Usages of the term in fields like finance are mere analogies.

The original sin (the Fall)

Classical Biblical and Orthodox Jewish view

Adam's sin, as recounted in the Book of Genesis is sometimes called in Hebrew החטא הקדמון (the original sin), on the basis of the traditional Christian term. But the term used in classical Jewish literature is חטא אדם הראשׁון), (the first sin of man, or of Adam).

The account in Genesis 2-3 implies that Adam and Eve initially lived in a state of intimate communion with God. God warned Adam not to eat of the fruit of "the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" (Genesis 2:15-17).[1] The serpent persuaded Eve, who in turn persuaded Adam, to disobey this commandment. After eating of the fruit, they immediately recognized their mistake, and became ashamed of their nakedness (Genesis 3:1-7).[2] God cursed the serpent, apparently changing its physical form, and setting up eternal enmity between mankind and serpents (Genesis 3:9-15).[3] God pronounced judgements on both Eve and Adam. Eve's judgement was the difficulties of pregnancy and subjection to her husband. Adam's was toil and struggle for his sustenance (Genesis 3:16-21).[4] Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden and doomed to die (Genesis 3:22-24).[5]

According to Jewish tradition (see Knowledge of the Heart, by Moses Chayim Luzzato), the divine prohibition was to give them free choice and allow them to earn, as opposed to receive, absolute perfection and intimate communion with God, a higher level than the one on which they were created.

The consequences affected Adam and Eve's descendants. People are not intrinsically condemned and sinful, but nevertheless begin life at a spiritual and metaphysical level inherited from Adam and Eve, far lower than Adam's original level. The course of history is meant to return humanity to Adam's original level, and then allow it to surpass that level by completing the task that Adam failed to complete. The curses and changes imposed on mankind and womankind following their sin are meant to facilitate this return to glory.

According to this tradition, Adam and Eve would have attained absolute perfection and retained immortality had they succeeded in withstanding the temptation to eat from the Tree. After failing at this task, they were condemned to a period of toil to rectify the fallen universe. In Jewish tradition, this is a 6,000 year period.

Jewish tradition views the serpent, and sometimes the Tree of Knowledge itself, as representatives of evil. Evil's job was and is to mislead Mankind and give the appearance that God does not actually control all elements of Creation. Adam's task was to see through this veil. After his failure, this became humanity's task through history.

Reform and Conservative Judaism's views

The more modern liberal branches of Judaism, such as Reform Judaism and Conservative Judaism, which see no "evil" other than the evil actions of human beings, disagree with traditions that identify the serpent with Satan. Eve's only transgression was that she disobeyed God's order. Adam was with her the entire time and at no time stopped her. Therefore, it is incorrect to blame Eve alone. Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden and had to live ordinary, human lives. In other words, they had to "leave home" and grow up and live as responsible human beings. If they had never eaten from the forbidden tree, they would never have discovered their capacity to act with free will in the world. God doesn't want human beings who have no choice but to always do what is good and right.

The original sin in Gnosticism

Gnostics saw the figure of the serpent as a divine benefactor and liberator of humanity, rather than as Satan, Lucifer, or any other ill-intentioned figure. They held that the world was created by the Demiurge, an imperfect creator who wished to rule it as a tyrant. However, the spirit of Christ interfered by possessing the serpent and telling Eve to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The fact that Adam and Eve ate from this tree allowed them to have free will and thus defy, if need be, their Demiurge creator. Therefore, according to the Gnostics, what Christians call the Fall was really the freeing of humanity's minds and souls,.

The original sin in the Unification Church

When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they did not "die" immediately (in the physical sense); but, according to the Unification Church interpretation, they "died" in a spiritual sense: their relationship with God was cut off.

According to Unification theology, Adam and Eve sinned by having a sexual relationship before they had reached perfection. The "fruit of knowledge" was a symbol of Eve's sexual love, which could be either good (if centered on God) or evil (if not). Eve was initially tempted into sin by the Archangel Lucifer, who seduced her. The reason why Adam and Eve hid their "lower parts" after the original sin is similar to the reason why children, having swiped cookies, might hide their hands ("I have concealed my transgressions like Adam, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom." -- Job 31:33).

The original sin in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the LDS Church, and the "Mormons") teaches a doctrine, known as the Fall of Adam, that the actions of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden brought about spiritual and physical death. Latter-day Saints believe that separation from God (spiritual death) was an intended part of the plan of God. The main objective of the plan was that mankind should be tested (see Abraham). Because separation from God was necessary, Latter-day Saints see the transgression of Adam and Eve as a great and necessary sacrifice, rather than a "mistake". Adam and Eve were cast out of God's presence and suffered physical pain and death after committing the transgression. Their choice to enter that fallen state willingly meant that the God's "Plan of Happiness" could proceed as intended, and was in line with his will.

Mormons do not believe that the transgression in Eden was of a sexual nature - nor could it have been, they hold, as God commanded Adam and Eve to multiply and replenish the Earth, implying that sexual relations between our progenitors were sanctioned by Him, and that they were de facto married by God in Eden. Likewise, they do not blame Eve for being the first to partake of the fruit, but rather celebrate her wisdom in recognizing that her descendants would have to be born, live, and make righteous choices on Earth, learn to repent through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and pass through death, in order eventually to be fully redeemed and return to live with God again. The idea is that it is better to pass through the sorrow of this life, in order to know the Good from the Evil, rather than to exist in a perpetual state of innocence and stagnant ignorance. (see 2nd Nephi 2:11)

The original sin according to Muslims

The majority of Sunni and Shia muslims, constituting over 95% of muslims, refuse the idea of the Original sin, citing ayahs such as: [6:164] "Every soul draws the meed of its acts on none but itself: no bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another," and [2:286] "On no soul doth Allah place a burden greater than it can bear. It gets every good that it earns, and it suffers every ill that it earns." There are minor factions, such as the Quran Alone Muslims, who accept a concept of original sin according to which every single human has sinned individually before coming to this earth.

Original sin (Christian doctrine)

There are wide-ranging disagreements among Christian groups as to the exact understanding of the doctrine about a state of sinfulness or absence of holiness affecting all human beings, even children, with some Christian groups denying it altogether.

Original sin in the New Testament

The New Testament teaching on original sin is briefly summarized by the Apostle Paul: "Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned." (Rom 5:12 NRSV).

The experience of original sin, and the spiritual pain it produces in the one who wishes to please God, is dramatically summed up by Paul: "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:15-24).

The solution to this dilemma is stated by Paul in these terms: "For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:3-4).

Though the New Testament doctrine of original sin is most clearly expressed by Paul, it is also seen as implicit in the teachings of Jesus: for example in such words as: "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).

Sometimes the episode in Matthew 18 in which Jesus says children are not to be despised, for "their angels in heaven do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven", is interpreted as meaning that the innocence of children, their lack of sinfulness, allows their angels to behold the Father. This interpretation conflicts with the usual picture of angels as in no way dependent on humans for their vision of God.

Original sin in Catholicism

After quoting Saint Paul's letter to the Romans 5:12, 18, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: "By the 'unity of the human race', all men are implicated in Adam's sin, as all are implicated in Christ's justice. Still, the transmission of original sin is a mystery that we cannot fully understand" (404).

The Catholic Church teaches that original sin, in which human beings are born, is "the state of deprivation of the original holiness and justice ... it is transmitted to the descendants of Adam along with human nature" (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 76). Being a state, not an act, it involves no personal responsibility (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 405). It is a state that gives rise to other consequences: "Human nature, without being entirely corrupted, has been harmed in its natural powers, is subject to ignorance, suffering and the power of death, and has a tendency to sin. This tendency is called concupiscence" (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 77).

The already existing doctrine of original sin was developed especially by Saint Augustine of Hippo in reaction to Pelagianism. The Church had always held baptism to be "for the remission of sins". Infants too were baptized, and were thus treated as inheriting the guilt of Adam's transgression, which, as St Paul taught, brought death upon the whole human race. In insisting that human beings have of themselves full freedom to choose between good and evil and so can achieve justification by their own efforts, Pelagianism denied both the importance of baptism and the teaching that God is the giver of all that is good.

The Catholic Church did not accept all of Augustine's ideas, in particular the opinion that involvement in Adam's guilt and punishment takes effect through the dependence of human procreation on the sexual passion, in which the spirit's inability to control flesh is evident.

There is a close link between the notion of original sin and the Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, namely the Church's teaching that, in view of the saving power of the future death and resurrection of her son Jesus, she was preserved from this "stain" (i.e. deprivation of holiness), which affects others. Those who deny the existence of inherited original sin implicitly profess belief in the immaculate conception not only of Mary but of every human being.

Original sin in mainstream Protestantism

The notion of original sin as interpreted by Augustine of Hippo was affirmed by the Protestant Reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin. Both Luther and Calvin agreed that humans inherit Adamic guilt and are in a state of sin from the moment of conception. This inherently sinful nature (the basis for the Calvinistic doctrine of "total depravity") results in a complete alienation from God and the total inability of humans to achieve reconciliation with God based on their own abilities. Not only do individuals inherit a sinful nature due to Adam's fall, but since he was the federal head and representative of the human race, all whom he represented inherit the guilt of his sin by imputation.

Because of this conundrum, Protestants believe that God the Father sent Jesus into the world. The personhood, life, ministry, suffering, and death of Jesus, as God incarnate in human flesh, is meant to be the atonement for original sin as well as actual sins; this atonement is according to some rendered fully effective by the Resurrection of Jesus.

Original sin in Restoration Movement

Most Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement Churches, such as the Churches of Christ, Christian Churches, and other Congregational Churches of the same origin, reject the notion of original sin, believing only in the sins for which men and women are personally responsible. Adam and Eve did bring sin into the world by introducing disobedience, and as a result the concept spread; however, sin itself is an action, and not something that one can inherit.

Original sin in Eastern Orthodoxy

Eastern Orthodoxy acknowledges that the introduction of sin into the human race affected the subsequent environment for mankind, but tends to deny any inherited guilt (such as is involved in what Orthodox consider to be a very common Western concept of original sin) or any necessary corruption of man's nature. The act of Adam is not the responsibility of all humanity. but the consequences of that act exist and plague the world. The act created an environment within which it is simply not possible, without direct Divine intervention, for a human being to avoid some sort of actual committed sin some time in his or her life. In essence, it is a type of combined "spiritual environmental pollution" and "spiritual illness".

See also

• Divine grace
• Justification
• Pandora's box
• Prevenient grace
• Total depravity
• Fall of man (Unification Church)

External links

• Article "Original Sin" in Catholic Encyclopedia
• Catechism of the Catholic Church
• The Book of Concord (www.bookofconcord.org): The Defense of the Augsburg Confession, Article II: Of Original Sin
• Sermon #44: Original Sin by John Wesley
• Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Cosmic Fall
• Original Sin as Privation: An Inquiry into a Theology of Sin and Sanctification by Leon Hynson
• Original Sin Myths