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Original sin
In Christian theology, original sin (Latin: peccatum originale) is the condition of sinfulness that all humans share, which is inherited from Adam and Eve due to the Fall, involving the loss of original righteousness and the distortion of the Image of God. The biblical basis for the belief is generally found in Genesis 3 (the story of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden), and in texts such as Psalm 51:5 ("I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me") and Romans 5:12–21 ("Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned").
The specific doctrine of original sin was developed in the 2nd century struggle against Gnosticism by Irenaeus of Lyons, and was shaped significantly by Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD), who was the first author to use the phrase "original sin". Influenced by Augustine, the Councils of Carthage (411–418 AD) and Orange (529 AD) brought theological speculation about original sin into the official lexicon of the Church.
Protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin equated original sin with concupiscence (or 'hurtful desire'), affirming that it persisted even after baptism and completely destroyed freedom to do good, proposing that original sin involved a loss of free will except to sin. The Jansenist movement, which the Catholic Church declared heretical, also maintained that original sin destroyed freedom of will. Instead, the Catechism of the Catholic Church declares that "Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle", and the Council of Trent states that "whereas all men had lost their innocence in the prevarication of Adam [...] although free will, attenuated as it was in its powers, and bent down, was by no means extinguished in them."
For the Apostle Paul, Adam's act released a power into the world by which sin and death became the natural lot of mankind, a view which is evident in 2 Esdras, 2 Baruch and the Apocalypse of Moses. Paul uses much of the same language observed in 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, such as Adam-death associations. He also emphasizes the individual human responsibility for their sins when he described the predominance of death over all "because all have sinned" (Romans 5:12). Early Christianity had no specific doctrine of original sin prior to the 4th century. The idea developed incrementally in the writings of the Early Church Fathers in the centuries after the New Testament was composed. The late 1st- or early 2nd-century Didache's seemingly exclusive preference for adult baptism offers evidence that its author may have believed that children were born sinless. The authors of the Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistle of Barnabas, also from the late 1st or early 2nd centuries, assumed that children were born without sin. However Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch, from the same period, took universal sin for granted but did not explain its origin from anywhere; and while Clement of Alexandria in the late 2nd century did propose that sin was inherited from Adam, he did not say how.
The biblical bases for original sin are generally found in the following passages, the first and last of which explain why the sin is described as "original":
Genesis 3, the story of the Garden of Eden, makes no association between sex and the disobedience of Adam and Eve, nor is the serpent associated with Satan, nor are the words "sin," "transgression," "rebellion," or "guilt" mentioned. The words of Psalm 51:5 read: "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me", but while the speaker traces their sinfulness to the moment of their conception, there is little to support the idea that it was meant to be applicable to all humanity. In the 4th century, Augustine would use texts such as Romans 5:16–18 to justify his theory of original sin as originating in propagation since Adam rather than being merely imitation of Adam as Pelagius claimed ("And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all."). However, Pelagians and modern interpreters such as M. Eugene Boring argue that Paul's meaning is not that God punishes later generations for the deeds of Adam, but that Adam's story is representative for all humanity.
The first writings to discuss the first sin at the hands of Adam and Eve were early Jewish texts in the Second Temple Period, such as the Book of Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon. In these writings, there is no notion that sin is inherent to an individual or that it is transmitted upon conception. Instead, Adam is more largely seen as a heroic figure and the first patriarch. Rather, the beginnings of sin were seen in the stories of Cain or the sons of God mentioned in Genesis 6.
Despite the lack of a notion of original sin, by the 1st century, a number of texts did discuss the roles of Adam and Eve as the first to have committed sin. While Wisdom of Solomon 2:23–24 states that "God created man for incorruption [...] but death entered the world by the envy of the devil" (2:23–24), Ecclesiasticus 25:24 states that "Sin began with a woman, and we must all die because of her" (25:24). The notion of the hereditary transmission of sin from Adam was rejected by both 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch in favor of individual responsibility for sin. Despite describing death as having come to all men through Adam, these texts also held to the notion that it is still the individual that is ultimately responsible for committing his own sin and that it is the individual's sin, rather than the sin of Adam and Eve, that God condemns in a person. Ian McFarland argues that it is the context of this Judaism through which Paul's discussions on the fall of Adam are to be better understood.
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Original sin
In Christian theology, original sin (Latin: peccatum originale) is the condition of sinfulness that all humans share, which is inherited from Adam and Eve due to the Fall, involving the loss of original righteousness and the distortion of the Image of God. The biblical basis for the belief is generally found in Genesis 3 (the story of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden), and in texts such as Psalm 51:5 ("I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me") and Romans 5:12–21 ("Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned").
The specific doctrine of original sin was developed in the 2nd century struggle against Gnosticism by Irenaeus of Lyons, and was shaped significantly by Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD), who was the first author to use the phrase "original sin". Influenced by Augustine, the Councils of Carthage (411–418 AD) and Orange (529 AD) brought theological speculation about original sin into the official lexicon of the Church.
Protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin equated original sin with concupiscence (or 'hurtful desire'), affirming that it persisted even after baptism and completely destroyed freedom to do good, proposing that original sin involved a loss of free will except to sin. The Jansenist movement, which the Catholic Church declared heretical, also maintained that original sin destroyed freedom of will. Instead, the Catechism of the Catholic Church declares that "Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle", and the Council of Trent states that "whereas all men had lost their innocence in the prevarication of Adam [...] although free will, attenuated as it was in its powers, and bent down, was by no means extinguished in them."
For the Apostle Paul, Adam's act released a power into the world by which sin and death became the natural lot of mankind, a view which is evident in 2 Esdras, 2 Baruch and the Apocalypse of Moses. Paul uses much of the same language observed in 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, such as Adam-death associations. He also emphasizes the individual human responsibility for their sins when he described the predominance of death over all "because all have sinned" (Romans 5:12). Early Christianity had no specific doctrine of original sin prior to the 4th century. The idea developed incrementally in the writings of the Early Church Fathers in the centuries after the New Testament was composed. The late 1st- or early 2nd-century Didache's seemingly exclusive preference for adult baptism offers evidence that its author may have believed that children were born sinless. The authors of the Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistle of Barnabas, also from the late 1st or early 2nd centuries, assumed that children were born without sin. However Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch, from the same period, took universal sin for granted but did not explain its origin from anywhere; and while Clement of Alexandria in the late 2nd century did propose that sin was inherited from Adam, he did not say how.
The biblical bases for original sin are generally found in the following passages, the first and last of which explain why the sin is described as "original":
Genesis 3, the story of the Garden of Eden, makes no association between sex and the disobedience of Adam and Eve, nor is the serpent associated with Satan, nor are the words "sin," "transgression," "rebellion," or "guilt" mentioned. The words of Psalm 51:5 read: "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me", but while the speaker traces their sinfulness to the moment of their conception, there is little to support the idea that it was meant to be applicable to all humanity. In the 4th century, Augustine would use texts such as Romans 5:16–18 to justify his theory of original sin as originating in propagation since Adam rather than being merely imitation of Adam as Pelagius claimed ("And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all."). However, Pelagians and modern interpreters such as M. Eugene Boring argue that Paul's meaning is not that God punishes later generations for the deeds of Adam, but that Adam's story is representative for all humanity.
The first writings to discuss the first sin at the hands of Adam and Eve were early Jewish texts in the Second Temple Period, such as the Book of Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon. In these writings, there is no notion that sin is inherent to an individual or that it is transmitted upon conception. Instead, Adam is more largely seen as a heroic figure and the first patriarch. Rather, the beginnings of sin were seen in the stories of Cain or the sons of God mentioned in Genesis 6.
Despite the lack of a notion of original sin, by the 1st century, a number of texts did discuss the roles of Adam and Eve as the first to have committed sin. While Wisdom of Solomon 2:23–24 states that "God created man for incorruption [...] but death entered the world by the envy of the devil" (2:23–24), Ecclesiasticus 25:24 states that "Sin began with a woman, and we must all die because of her" (25:24). The notion of the hereditary transmission of sin from Adam was rejected by both 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch in favor of individual responsibility for sin. Despite describing death as having come to all men through Adam, these texts also held to the notion that it is still the individual that is ultimately responsible for committing his own sin and that it is the individual's sin, rather than the sin of Adam and Eve, that God condemns in a person. Ian McFarland argues that it is the context of this Judaism through which Paul's discussions on the fall of Adam are to be better understood.