Original sin, also called ancestral sin, is the Christian doctrine of humanity's state of sin resulting from the
fall of man, namely the sin of consuming from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, stemming from Adam's 'rebellion' in Eden.
- This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred to as a "sin nature", to something as drastic as total depravity, or 'automatic guilt' of all humans through 'collective guilt'.
History of the doctrine
The doctrine of ancestral fault (προγονικὸν ἁμάρτημα
progonikon harmatema), i.e. the sins of the forefathers leading to punishment of their descendants, was presented as a tradition of immemorial antiquity in ancient Greek religion by Celsus in his
True Doctrine, a polemic attacking Christianity. Celsus is quoted as attributing to "a priest of Apollo or of Zeus" the saying that "the mills of the gods grind slowly, even to children's children, and to those who are born after them."[10]
The idea of divine justice taking the form of collective punishment is also ubiquitous in the Hebrew Bible.[11]
- 10 Ὀψὲ, φησι, θεῶν ἀλέουσι μύλοι, και Ἐς παίδων παῖδας τοί κεν μετόπισθη γένωνται. Gagné, Renaud (2013). Ancestral Fault in Ancient Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 60. ISBN 978-1-107-03980-3.
- Note the reference to the Iliad and "ancestral fault as a major doctrine of Greek religion" [p.61]
St Paul's idea of redemption hinged on the contrast between the sin of Adam and the death and resurrection of Jesus. "
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".[Rom. 5:12] "
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive."[1 Cor. 15:22] Up till then the transgression in the Garden of Eden had not been given great significance. As the Jesus scholar, Geza Vermes has said:
- Paul believed that Adam's transgression in a mysterious way affected the nature of the human race. The primeval sin, a Pauline creation with no biblical or post-biblical Jewish precedent, was irreparable by ordinary human effort.[14]
The formalized Christian doctrine of original sin was first developed in the 2nd century by Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyon, in his struggle against Gnosticism.[2] Irenaeus contrasted
[Gnostic
] doctrine with the view that the Fall was a step in the wrong direction by Adam, with whom, Irenaeus believed, his descendants had some solidarity or identity.[15] Irenaeus believed that Adam's sin had grave consequences for humanity, that it is the source of human sinfulness, mortality and enslavement to sin, and that all human beings participate in his sin and share his guilt.[16]
The Greek Fathers emphasized the cosmic dimension of the Fall, namely that since Adam human beings are born into a fallen world, but held fast to belief that man, though fallen, is free.[2] They thus did
not teach that human beings are deprived of free will and involved in total depravity, which is one understanding of original sin.[17][18] During this period
the doctrines of human depravity and the inherently sinful nature of human flesh were taught by Gnostics, and orthodox Christian writers took great pains to counter them.[19][20]
Historian Robin Lane Fox argues that the foundation of the doctrine of original sin, as accepted by the Church, was ultimately based on a mistranslation of ... Romans 5:12–21 by Augustine, in his "On the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin".[23]
23 Fox, Robin Lane (2006). The Unauthorized Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible. London: Penguin. ISBN 9780141022963.
