What Is Sin?
Both Judaism and Christianity seem to have very long lists of things they call sins, but what is sin really?
If you ask any Christian what a sin is, they can probably give you a long list of things they call sins, such as lying, murder and homosexuality. But are those things actually sins? Before we can answer that question, we have to look at what a “sin” really is. To do that, let’s go back to what both Christianity and Judaism (I believe) both consider to be the first recorded “sin.”
Now, I understand that there is a lot of controversy over whether the Bible is “real” or “true” or not. Some people believe every word literally, others believe it is merely an allegory, while others believe is it just a book of fairy tales. But, regardless of what you think the Bible is, there are certainly some lessons to be learned from it. Or, to put it another way, it does offer some pretty fascinating possible explanations of why and how things came to be the way they are today. So, let’s just look at the “allegory” (if you will) of Adam and Eve. If you think it’s an absolutely true story, that’s fine, and if you think it’s just a “fairy tale,” that’s also fine. It doesn’t change the “moral” of the story.
Even if you’re not religious, you probably know the story. God created a garden paradise for Adam and Eve and told them they could eat the fruit of any tree but one. Which is where we get the idea of “forbidden fruit.” And, of course, since we are all human, what is the one fruit that everyone wants the most? Well, the forbidden one, of course. Adam and Eve were no differnt. Eventually, of course, they ate fruit from the one tree they weren’t supposed to.
But what was so special about that one tree?
I don’t think there was anything special about that particular tree. I don’t think it was any different from any other tree. But, by identifying one tree that Adam and Eve could not eat from, God created one rule that they were free to break or not break. By doing so, God gave them free will. You can’t have free will without a choice. If all ice cream was vanilla ice cream, then you can’t choose which one you want because there is only one choice.
God didn’t put a fence around the tree or an alarm system. He (or She/ It/ They) didn’t install cameras and clearly wasn’t watching them every moment because when they did finally eat of the tree, God did not appear immediately. As soon as God did appear, however, He/She immediately knew what Adam and Eve had done.
If you look at the way man defines sin, then Adam and Eve’s sin would literally be eating fruit, because in the world of men, sin is always something that they (we) can see, point to and judge. It’s always an outward action. But the tree they ate from was just one of many, and they clearly existed on and ate fruit every day, so clearly simply eating fruit was not a sin. So what was the sin exactly?
The Bible says that “man looks on the outward appearance but God looks at the heart.” (1 Sam 16:7) So what if “sin” is not an action but a condition of the heart?
Adam and Eve lived in a garden paradise. They were surrounded by friendly animals. They weren’t being hunted by anyone or anything, so they didn’t need protection. There was nothing to buy, so they didn’t need money. So, what can you tempt people with that literally have everything they could want or need? When all of your physical needs are met and there is nothing else to need, what is there to want?
“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen 3:5 NIV)
And there it is.
What we all want.
To be like God.
And what is the greatest power of God?
To decide what (who) is good and what (who) is bad.
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it, and once you see it, you see it every day from every possible outlet imaginable. Why are courtroom dramas and court shows like Judge Judy so popular? Because we love to play judge and jury. We LOVE to decide who is guilty and who is innocent, which is to say, who is good and who is bad.
One of the most alarming places I see this constantly and consistently is in American churches. (Don’t get me wrong, this attitude can be found in every church and every religion around the world, but I can only speak to what I have personally seen, witnessed, heard or experienced.)
Who goes to Heaven? Good people.
Who goes to Hell? Bad people.
And who decides who are the “good” people and who are the “bad” people? We do.
Perhaps even more importantly, good and bad are almost inextricably intertwined with right and wrong. So, “good” people are not just good, they are right and “bad” people are not just bad, they are wrong.
And who is “we” exactly? Well, every group that takes it upon itself to decide.
And “we” are always the good people and “they” are always the bad people.
Another word for this is tribalism, and we are all a part of many different tribes.
By far, the majority of Catholics likely believe that only Catholics go to Heaven. While some might be slightly embarassed by this beleif and would never actually say it out loud (or may not even be aware they hold it) others will actually preach this very message loudly and proudly. Still others, however, understand that while they may participate in Catholic rituals and hold to the Catholic faith, they (and their faith) aren’t actually superior to anyone else.
If you are LDS (Mormon) then you probably believe (or were taught) that only those baptized into the LDS church can achieve the Celestial Kingdom. In the LDS faith, there are three kingdoms of heaven, with the Celestial Kingdom being the highest. Since it is also where Jesus resides, that is the place everyone wants to be. Mormons believe this so deeply that they actually baptize non-Mormons by “proxy” in their temples. They call them baptisms for the dead, but they also baptize each other in the name of many living who are not of the LDS faith.This is why they are so obsessed with geneology. They genuinly believe that everyone must be baptized in a Mormon temple to be allowed entry into the Celestial Kingdom, and so they baptize each other in the name of everyone not of the LDS faith.
If you are a Baptist, you probably believe that only people who “accept Jesus as their savior” or who have been “washed in the blood” will go to Heaven. And how do you know who is going to Heaven and who isn’t? Well, obviously, all the people who believe the exact same way you do will go to Heaven and sadly, everyone who doesn’t will likely end up in Hell.
It is ironic that the very first sin came out of a desire to be like God, and if modern American churches are any indication, it doesn’t seem like a whole lot has changed. It seems that the primary function of most American churches is to decide who gets to go to Heaven and who does not. And realistically, that doesn’t seem to make them a whole lot different than any other religion that teaches of any afterlife with two potential destinations.
But why was eating a piece of fruit a sin?
I think this snippet from thewordorigin.com provides a great clue to understanding.
The word “sin” can be traced back to the ancient Greek word “hamartia,” which was used in Greek tragedy to describe a tragic flaw or error in judgment that led to the downfall of the protagonist. In the New Testament, the Greek word “hamartia” was used to translate the Hebrew word “chet,” which meant to miss the mark or to fall short of a goal.
I believe one of the most common teachings in way too many churches is that God punishes us for our sin. But what if that’s not actually true? What if God is actually just trying to protect us from our “sin,” or the consequences of our own foolish choices? I think the writers of the New Testament were on to something when they used the word “hamartia,” which implies that our downfall is not a punishment from God, but simply the result of our own bad decisions.
The end of the Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden story has God banishing Adam and Eve from the garden. Before they go, however, most churches teach that God puts a “curse” on Adam and Eve. I wrote an entire article about the supposed “curse of Eve.” but it’s very important to understand that the Bible was predominantly written by and has been translated and interpreted for centuries now by men. Men who, by the way (just like women) have a very specific worldview that is natural and innate to them.
While I disagree with how this was translated, this is how the “curse” of Adam and Eve is translated in the New International Version of the Bible.
To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband,and he will rule over you.”
To Adam he said,
“Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Gen 3:16-19)
The first thing to notice here is that to Eve God supposedly says “I will make [this happen]” while to Adam, God simply identifies what will happen (the ground will be cursed, not I will make the ground cursed). The problem with this is that the Hebrew word from which they are taking this idea that God “made” this happen is what is called an infinitive absolute.
An infinitive absolute is a part of speech unique to Hebrew but it is called an absolute because it stands on its own as an independent grammatical identity. In other words, it doesn’t need to be “driven” by a pronoun. A much more accurate interpretation of this passage would simply be “your pains in childbearing will become great,” rather than “I will sharply increase them”
These verses have also been used to imply that it is God’s will that men “rule over” women, but I believe that is largely due to a purposeful mistranslation. I believe rather, that God is identifying the natural consequences of the choice that Eve made. Remember “hamartia,” the Greek word from where we get the word “sin”? It describe a “tragic flaw or error in judgment that led to the downfall of the protagonist.” I believe God is simply telling Eve what her fate is now to be as a result of her choice. Which doesn’t mean God is making it happen, or “cursing” Eve.
Rather, God is identifying that “Eve” (or women, her descendants) will have such a burning desire for Adam (or man’s approval) that it will cause us to allow him to rule over us. One of the many reasons I think this is that you can see evidence of it everywhere. It is a widely held belief that the most common form of sex trafficking is kidnapping women, but it is not.
A number of recent high-profile sex trafficking cases, from R. Kelly to Sean “Puffy” Combs to Andrew Tate, show that women most often willingly went with these men and in most cases were free to leave, in the sense that they were not actively being watched or monitored. But their desire for the “love” or “approval” of these men was so great that they allowed themselves to be beaten, raped, molested and trafficked for the sake of the “love” they so desperately desired. That is the “curse” of Eve.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
I believe we all have the power to lift the curse for ourselves. I believe that that is the gospel. It doesn’t trap you, chain you, enslave you or make you the subordinate of men - or anyone else. It does quite the opposite in fact. It sets you free.
I think it’s like a hangover. If you choose to drink, there may be hell to pay the next day, but it’s not meant to be our natural state. Imagine that a hangover is the “curse” or natural outcome of drinking. Needless to say, there’s a pretty easy way to avoid the curse. Stop drinking. Now imagine a teen comes home drunk for the very first time and their loving parent says “my child, tomorrow you are going to curse the sky. Your head is going to pound, sunlight will be like an arrow piercing your eyeballs and you will spend most of the day praying to the porcelain gods.” Are they cursing their child or are they simply telling them the outcome of their choices?
I think this is what God was doing in Genesis.
The Bible says that when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit “their eyes were opened” and they discovered that they were naked. (Genesis 3:7) But what were their eyes “opened” to and how? It wasn’t eating the fruit that was the problem, it was disobeying God. God gave them one and only one rule. Before they broke that rule, they had no concept of “good” and “bad.” The second they ate the fruit, was the first time they had ever done something “bad.” They did something they felt guilty about, because they knew they weren’t supposed to. So, in a way, yes, they did gain the “power of God” because now they were, for the first time aware of the concept of “good” and “bad,” or “right” and “wrong.”
But guess what? It turns out that the power of God is a pretty heavy weight to bear. So heavy in fact, that humans simply weren’t meant to bear it.
And what about Adam? What was his “curse” exactly?
I had to think about this one for a long time, because the point of the “curse” is that it is something that would follow man (or woman) around for generations to come. Just like the “curse” of Eve, I believe that both “curses” were simply the identification of a new norm that Adam and Eve had brought on mankind, but that we could set ourselves free of. I think the “curse” (like a hangover) was the result of Adam and Eve’s choices, but one that is not meant to be our natural state. That being said, it is one that we would think of as being “just the way things are’ rather than something we would see or acknowledge as actually being the result of our foolish choices.
Now, I will be fully honest, I am still stumped about the “pain in childbearing” thing, because women around the world have been giving birth for centuries now and there doesn’t seem to be any way out of that one. But, I’m just going to backburner that one for now and skip ahead to Adam.
Recently, I read that Native Americans thought that colonists had come here because they didn’t have any food. Native Americans didn’t need to plant food, they simply gathered the abundance that the earth provided for them all on its own. They didn’t “raise” cattle or pigs or sheep for meat, they just hunted what was already there. What the Earth (or God, or Mother Nature) provided for them. The Colonists, however, nearly starved because they had to plant food and/ or raise livestock. It was the only way they knew how to eat.
And that was a lightbulb moment for me because I believe that we (both men and women) are still living under the curse, but we don’t need to be. We have the power to set ourselves free. I believe I set myself free when I stopped needing the “love” (approval) of men.
What if the curse of Adam is that he makes everything harder than it needs to be, out of his own need to be GOD? I have heard over and over that the role of man is to be “protector and provider,” but from what I gather from the Bible, that is actually GOD’S job. What if man doesn’t actually need to till the soil (or hustle and grind), you just need to go out and gather what GOD has already provided? And when all is said and done, where does Adam always end up? With some monument to his own greatness that proclaims his name throughout the ages? No, he ends up a pile of dirt, just like he started.
Perhaps man sets himself free of “the curse” when he stops thinking it’s his job to “provide’ for everyone and instead humbly trusts God to provide for him.
How freaking ironic would it be if Native Americans (and other Indigenous Peoples) had actually managed to set themselves free of “the curse” and live as God intended, only to have European Colonists come and put them right back under it again? All in the name of “converting” them to Christianity.
What if “sin” is not something we do, but a condition of the heart? The idea or belief that we (or mankind) is greater than God, knows more than God, or, quite frankly, simply does not need God. I see it everywhere in America right now, particularly in churches. I feel like if the people proclaiming their Christian faith the loudest actually understood the gospel, there would be neither panic nor rejoicing any time a new president was elected. After all, every President since the formation of the United States have all just been men. If your god isn’t bigger than any one of those men, I’d say that’s a pretty small god.
And, in my opinion, that’s what “the fall” was all about. It was the moment when Adam and Eve stopped seeing themselves as under God and tried to make themselves equal to God. Something we seem to still be intent on doing, even today.
I don’t know about you, but I believe in a God that is so much bigger than any man. It’s possible that in choosing to believe in a God that is bigger than any man, I set myself free of “original sin.”