Re: CHAT: Lord's Prayer

On Fri, 12 Nov 1999 12:53:19 -0500 Bryan Maloney <bjm10@...>
writes:
> Wrong--at least the Orthodox Church teaches that we can sin against
> God,
> against people,  against countries, etc.  The idea that "sin" is
> EXCLUSIVELY and ONLY "spiritual crime" is an aberration, not part of
> the
> oldest Hebrew and early Christian tradition of interpretation.  The
> English word "sin" is used to translate the Greek "amartia"--meaning
> "to
> miss the mark".  It can refer to "spiritual crime" but to a host of
> OTHER
> acts that "miss the mark" as well.
Wow....direct translation from the Hebrew _hheitt_?
The idea of "sinning" as not just 'breaking the law', but 'missing the
mark' seems to be very much played up in Jewish Mysticism.
And in Israel, when a soccer player misses a goal, they use the same
verb.  Very strange to someone who has only ever heard the word
_hhattati_ to mean "i have sinned".  I'd expect them to start hitting
their chest with their fist next!  :-)


-Stephen (Steg)

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