The Problem (2)
And the Lord said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.” Genesis 18:20 NASB
Sin – What is sin? According to the Hebrew word, hatta’h, sin means “to commit an offense against someone with whom one stands in an institutionalized community relationship.”[1] Notice that sin assumes a set of shared communal obligations, that sin is quite personal and that it is observable by both parties. This is why God Himself is often the victim of sin. The presupposed condition is that God and the offending party share a relationship built of expected behaviors. Koch asks, “Did ht’ originally mean the breaking of a taboo?”[2] It might seem so, especially if the cultures surrounding Israel understood “taboo” as doing something forbidden by either religious or social standards. Perhaps we could grasp the biblical idea of sin in its own culture if we thought of YHVH’s prohibitions in the Torah as taboos, not universal moral laws.
But hatta’h is more than simply committing an offense. In biblical thought, a sin includes its inevitable consequences. Our legal system distinguishes between verdict and punishment, but not so in biblical thinking. The sin is already pregnant with the ensuing disaster. In fact, YHVH accelerates this inevitability. He increases the calamity that the sin already generates. Of course, He also provides atonement, both through cultic actions (like sacrifices) and through His own desire to demonstrate compassion. He carries away (nasa’) the guilt of the offending party, sometimes before the disaster occurs and sometimes afterward. In some cases, hatta’h includes corporate consequences. It is infectious. Since its very presence means disaster, it is to be avoided at all costs, even when the offender is someone else. We can think of hatta’h as transitive. Its properties (the inevitable consequences) pass on to others whose only personal qualification is proximity or lineage.
Now we understand two crucial facts. First, defining hatta’h as “missing the mark” obscures the communal and relational aspects of sin. One might even suggest that sin is never exclusively personal. It always infects others. It is much more than failure to meet some expected standard. It is lethal disease, destroying the relationship bond between the parties and creating an inevitable calamity that will suck others into the maelstrom.
Secondly, sin is behavioral. Thanks to Augustine and Luther, our concept of sin often focuses primarily on the inward moral conscience. In Christian thought, sin is principally a personal affair that begins with cognitive mistakes. Descartes’ Cogito ego sum finds its way into Christian theology with the notion that mental error is sin and is the genesis of outward behavioral sin. But Scripture takes a different approach. Sin is what I do, not generally what I think. Luther’s idea that we sin every day in thought, word and deed does not reflect the cultural situation of Mosaic Israel. If we realize that sin is not the inner moral struggle to believe the right things in order to have the right spiritual attitude, we can understand why the opposite of hatta’h is not righteousness but rather hesed. Christian (Catholic) guilt is a ubiquitous adoption of the Greek soma found ontologically insufficient (oh, I know I have to explain this sentence[3]). Hebrew sin is doing what I have been told not to do. And between the two is a hell of a difference.
But hatta’h is not the only word for sin. We have more to learn before we know what God thinks of our actions.
Topical Index: sin, hatta’h, hesed, righteousness, punishment, Genesis 18:20
[1] Koch, chata’, TDOT, Vol. 4, p. 311.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Greek thought focuses on the inner, spiritual psyche (“soul”) in opposition to the body (soma). This follows from the Greek idea that the intellect (the rationality) of Man is the most important factor in being human. What this means is that what we do “in the body” is inconsequential as long as our inner spiritual state is focused on the heavenly abode of the True, the Good and the Beautiful. In Platonic dualism, the body (soma) is essentially corrupt and flawed. It must be left behind in the ascent to heaven. Sin is attached to the body, in fact, is an integral part of what it means to be a physical being. Guilt is the inevitable result of having a body since having a body is the equivalent of being flawed. My real issue in the battle against sin is my body and its passions. If I could just get rid of this physical prison, I would be the spiritual perfection God intended. In Christian thought, guilt is the result of a physical condition. This is why Lutheran theology postulates that men are born sinners. They are corrupt and due punishment simply because their physical embodiment carries with it the flawed character of the material world. Hebrew thought, on the other hand, does not view the physical world as essentially flawed, although there is no doubt the physical world is in need of restoration. Therefore, sin is a matter of physical action, and, by the way, so is righteousness.
Sin is what I do, not generally what I think. This has caused me to rethink Matt 5: 28. I always assumed looking in this verse was a mental action, but now I understand that looking is a physical action. The action of looking does bear weight. If you stare at someone from behind they will generally feel the stare and turn to see who is looking at them unless they are completly occupied with other personal actions.
Skip, I am inclined to agree with some of the Greek/Lutheran thought on this.
The “flesh” is a powerful energy towards self indulgence. I groan when people say something to the effect of, “The devel made me do it”. Certainly the enemy of our souls is at work and can deceive us. However we also inhabit a perishable body that, like a spoiled child wants its own way.
When we are young many of us have parents who set and enforce boundaries for us. When we are adults who enforces the boundaries? Our spouse or society or our G-d, although in my experience He rarely forces me to do right or avoid evil.
What I am trying ot say in my own way is that there is a causal agent that takes place in the (heart? mind? soul?) and must be tamed, in part by stopping it at the source. To me that was the point of the Sermon on the Mount. Nip it in the bud because that is where the battle is won or lost.
To that end I often pray the Lord to cause me to “see” a sin that is attractive to me as He does. In that way choosing to obey is easier than just “white knuckling it”, and I can become transformed through the renewing of my mind.
I thought this was one of the issues with the Pharisees. They were outwardly obedient to the Law but inside were a rotting tomb.
LIKE.
I used to read the Sermon on the Mt just like you have explained. But now I read the Sermon on the Mt, and the “You have heard it said but I say…….” as Yeshua NOT separating the mind, and body (and of course spirit.) In fact just the opposite. Once you understand that Hebrew though does not divide being human into “body, soul and spirit, then it becomes clear. “Soul” or Nephesh is the complete being not separated into parts. So yes my mind is involved but not as a separate entity of my body and spirit but as part of my nephesh.
Of course, not ALL the Pharisees. Paul was one. Yeshua was as close as one could get to being one himself. But, like all human organizations, some are hypocrites. Those are the ones under attack.
First of all, every sentence you wrote, Skip, is exquisite. You are so on your game with this subject! So much beauty of truth. Thank you for truth so simple and clear I am in awe.
Oh, my. So we are suffering from a bait-and-switch from the get-go.
Ok, this is classic. While we slept, the enemy switched out the baby in the cradle: took a perfectly good foundational fact, which is the very definition of what sin IS, and CHANGED it to mean something different. Therefore, once we bought that bridge out in that prairie state, everything else that follows from that is going to be false. Got it.
What is sin? Breaking of the Law. What is the Law? A description of correct RELATIONS between YHVH, myself, and others. So, it follows that sin is going to be about the breaking of relationships. Simple.
Now, I get what you are saying, but I find in my life that relating CAN be about what is in my heart and head, if it is about me breaking relationship with myself. I just wanted to throw that in there. It is wrong to oppose ourselves (2Tim. 2:25) and to h’t (hate?) ourselves (Matt. 12:31), just like it is wrong to oppose and hate YHVH and others. We have to rightly relate to ourselves, also. I do know that the actions that follow (mirror) that fracture of myself with myself are sin. One of the most hideous consequences of hating myself was that no one was able to successfully love me. That self-hatred did not let them. Ever try to hug a porcupine? I was one for years! And, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” is talking about the origin of the action, is it not? But, but. Sin never stays in the heart, does it? What do we want excuses for? So that we can act with impunity! The instant the heart comes up with an excuse, the action is not going to be far behind!
I think there are but two kingdoms in this world: the Kingdom of Self (which is an illusion, because there truly is no such thing in reality as ‘my own way’) and the Kingdom of YHVH. Therefore, there will be but two religious systems: the true one that lays down the Way to YHVH, and the false one(s) that lay down the way to Self. Paganism, for me, defines all the ways we have invented to worship self. It requires that the nephesh be split (thank you very much, Descartes!) so as to not have to change anything. That way we can merrily suffer from the illusion that things are great (spiritual purity) while the house is burning down (physical chaos). Net result is that we do not have to CHANGE. Nor do we have to ACT. Nice. We get it all ‘our way’ as long as we devise a way to pay to keep it that way! Paganism gives us lots of way to pay to play to choose from.
Science tells us that all reactions in the body come from thoughts. Every hormonal response, every cell that builds or kills itself (apoptosis) every new genetic switch (genes turn on and off in response to thoughts all the time), every constriction of the heart, and action of the immune system: EVERYTHING is set up to be governed from the top. BUT, the instant that we determine in our heart and mind what the next thought (choice) is, the body instantaneously follows that decree. It is therefore impossible to separate thought from expression. That is the way the nephesh is designed; Descartes and his delusional desire for a mythical split notwithstanding. The Bible is written with this understanding. We need to learn to read it with this understanding. If we did, I think it would start to clear up some of the confusion that has been creeping in over the centuries from all those delusional pagans who wanted to have their cake and eat it, too.
The truth is, folks, and sorry to break this, but there truly is no difference between spirit, soul and body. The nephesh is indivisible. What goes down in one is going to be going down in the rest simultaneously. About the best we can do is arrest those thoughts as they are forming in the heart, and decide if we really want to think them before they get laid down (neuronally) in the head, because once they do, the fat is in the fire. Now, does that give a new meaning to “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”? I guess that would be a “Sorry, Luther”, too.
The King’s great love toward us demolishes the barriers of self-hatred we have erected, and the King’s worth He places upon us unshackles the unworthy things in us.
Especially meaningful, these truths you have written Brian. I remember when your first wife suffered and died with cancer; and I believe that you had a nine year old daughter that you walked with at times during those painful days, trying to give her comfort, I am sure. Just being with her gave her some comfort. If I recall correctly, please let us hear how your daughter is doing now.
Right on Laura. I like this!
“Hebrew thought, on the other hand, does not view the physical world as essentially flawed, although there is no doubt the physical world is in need of restoration. Therefore, sin is a matter of physical action, and, by the way, so is righteousness.” Good word Skip! This explains why the Jews claimed Oskar Schindler and others to be a “Righteous Gentile”….because of what he DID…not who he was
“Sin is what you do not what you think” but then what about the tenth commandment and your view that YHVH is the only God that employes “thought police”?
Ah, but coveting is something I do, I just do it without telling anyone.
Trying to get my mind around this. How does one “physically” covet? On the flip side, can you provide an example of a thought that does not manifest physically?
Question Skip, so lets say I am utterly frustrated with a person and I end up using some PG-13 words to describe them in my head. When i see them though I have self control not to any of that and either remain silent or at least pleasant. Is the sin the cognitive aspect still because, “I shouldn’t even be thinking that way” or was it indeed conquering yetzer hara?
But I think our bodies know. There are hundreds of colloquial expressions that are succinct observations of human nature. One of those expressions is “there is not a jealous bone in her body”. Even Proverbs has an observation: Proverbs 14:30 calls envy “the rottenness of the bones”. Envy, jealousy, competitiveness, all the “us’s and them’s” differentiations; the spiritual orientation that is required to accomplish this mindset, is going to express in the body, as the motivations and actions are also going to express in reality. Personally, I think there must be some sort of acidity in this mindset, perhaps, that pulls minerals on a continual basis from the bones to realign the ph of the body. It is just a guess, but I do know that jealous, competitive people seem to have problems with rotting teeth, rotting bones in general, and, in the case of my exceedingly jealous-natured mother, bone cancer, too. I do wonder things like this. I also know people who have been healed of these type issues when they recognized that covetousness and competitiveness and jealousy were sin-makers, and repented for that incorrect spiritual mindset. Their bodies healed right up. If I am a competitive, jealous person, the MOTIVES for my choices and actions are not going to be geared toward the welfare of others, even though I can make it APPEAR that they are. People can tell when they are being loved, and when they are in the presence of a self-serving person. Even a dog can tell the difference between being petted by someone who wants to impress their owner and someone who truly likes them! I think different motives can drive the identical action in different directions. Maybe only G-d can sort it out, but some actions are going to be blessed by Him, and some aren’t, because some are done in love, and some are being driven by self-serving interests. And we all know how those smell…
I wonder about how differently we would think if we could only start from the understanding that there IS NO DIFFERENCE between what is in the heart and mind and what is in the body and the action, and that a mindset IS going to determine the action. We do love to start out by looking at the action and using it to judge the mindset and the heart, but how many people learn to manipulate this in polite society where the art of smiling to the face and knifing to the back is so often perfected? Sigh. Oh, well. Nothing is easy when we live on the planet where the main Tutor is the Liar!
“Sin is what I do, not generally what I think. “
I get the point and yet,
Is it possible to watch hours of pornography and not to inevitably have it have a negative effect on our view of the proper roll of sex, and high regard of women, in a Christian’s life?
Isn’t that exactly what Yeshua was teaching in Matt 5:28 (regarding lusting after a woman in your heart)?
Is it possible to play hours of violent video games and not to inevitably have it have a negative effect on one’s view of compassion for others? Especially in children? And might I add for adults, endless episodes of TV’s C.S.I. and Hollywood movies making sure they have more and more slow motion body part obliteration and brain splatter? Would this not transfer to a weaker person’s possible actions against his neighbour? And our we so sure we are immune? How effective was Hitler’s propaganda movies on the entire nation of Germany?
“The sin is already pregnant with the ensuing disaster . . . Its properties (the inevitable consequences) pass on to others whose only personal qualification is proximity or lineage.”
Aren’t “watching pornography” or “playing video games” physical acts — that is, doing something?
Yes they are! Being tempted to watch is not an action. Watching is.
Take every thought captive. God loves me enough to tell me that.
I believe that people live by what they believe.
People ACT on what they believe; there’s the rub. 🙂
Let’s look at what scripture tells us about ourselves and then at what new science is beginning to prove.
Proverbs 23:6, “Do not eat the food of one who is stingy, and do not crave his delicacies. As he calculates the cost to himself, this is what he does: He tells you, “Eat and drink,” but he doesn’t really mean it.”
Translated: A man’s inner thoughts are his true self.
Matt. 7:18 “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a rotten tree cannot produce good fruit.”
Translation: With man’s ability to freely choose what we are…..why would we choose rotten?
Luke makes a valid point (6:45),”Good people do the good that is in them. But evil people do the evil that is in them. The things people say come from inside them.”
Matt. 5:27,”You have heard that our fathers were told, “Do not commit adultery.” And I tell you that a man who even looks at a woman with the purpose of lusting after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” In our over inflated sense of scholastic understanding-and driven determination to soothe our appetite to sin, we may feel we are capable of splitting hairs to perfection…however, modern science is proving scripture once again. Did you know that your emotions and emotional drive can change your DNA? In the early 1990’s, cell biologist Glen Rein and Institute of Heart Math Research Director Rollin McCraty conducted a series of experiments involving DNA and intentionally generated emotions. “The results provide experimental evidence to support the hypothesis that aspects of the DNA molecule can be altered through intentionality. The data indicate that when individuals are in a heart focused, loving state and in a more coherent mode of physiological functioning, they have a greater ability to alter the confirmation (shape or structure) of DNA.” The question becomes, what do you love most?
Now let’s consider this. MAYBE….when God said, “I punish children for their parent’s sin to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me….” MAYBE He was warning about the physical effects a parent’s sin would have on their children…creating for them certain drives or catalyst for future behavior. That’s why we see alcoholism, drug addiction and even sexual addictions that seem to “run” in families. My personal experience with God tells me this was a warning to parents of the effect their sins would have on their children – NOT a God of vengeance – so full of Himself He hates anybody that crosses Him-AND WILL MAKE THEM PAY!!! God knew then…duh, what we are just now learning. Your free will choices create physical changes! BUT! There’s even MORE good news! Jer. 31:29-33, “No more the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ Rather, each will die for his own sin; everyone who eats sour grapes, his own teeth will be set on edge. Here, the days are coming! says Adonai, when I will make a NEW COVENANT with the house of Israel and with the house of Y’hudah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took them by their hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt; because they, for their part, violated My covenant, even though I, for My part, was a husband to them. says Adonai. For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Adonai, I will put My Torah (My Word-My Heart’s Desires for them-while they are living on this battlefield) within them and write it on their hearts (that is their intellect AND their WILL-not a book); I will be their God, and they will be My people (because they WILL WANT to). No longer will any of them teach his fellow community member or his brother, “Know Adonai” (as a religious duty)- for all will know Me, from the least of them to the greatest; because I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more.”
In other words – WE CAN REPENT! Through the Blood Sacrifice – greater than bulls and goats..which would be extinct now through sacrifice…we can repent – make a choice to never look at porn, drink to excess or be bitter, violent or hateful – asking Him to heal our hearts..inner drives – any sins within our blood DNA that drive us and cover us with His Blood and fill us with His Spirit. THEN, His Word-not just the words written down on paper following religious rituals – but His Heart’s Desires for us…can be written on our own hearts so that we can live on earth in the fullness of His Love…being an example to those who are lost of what is available to them too. Every generation has the freedom to choose who and what he will love…we are not bound by our parents choices – we can be free and forgiven and bring freedom to our own children. Father in heaven – Your Name is set apart from everything unclean and evil-bring Your Loving, safe and clean world to earth. Help men to choose to live the life of perfect Love that is in Your Heart – the way You live and also intended for us to live. Please sustain us on this battlefield, physically and emotionally-help us!- to choose Your Way over evil and forgiving others who don’t yet understand. You created all and all is Yours – You are Awesome and Glorious!
Christian (Catholic) as in “universal”?
Loving this series! Lots to rethink and consider.
On Target
What is sin? ~ For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God! ~ (Romans 3.23) Talk about a broad brush! Where to begin? Why, with the Bible, of course!
~ What shall we say, then? Is the Law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the Law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ~ (Romans 7.7)
Now we are bouncing words back and forth. What is this “coveting” all about?
Epithumeó is the Greek word. Strong’s Greek defines this word #1937 epithyméō (from 1909 /epí, “focused on” intensifying 2372 /thymós, “passionate desire”) – properly, to show focused passion as it aptly builds on (Gk epi, “upon”) what a person truly yearns for; to “greatly desire to do or have something – ‘to long for, to desire very much’ ” (L & N, 1, 25.12).
I can almost see epithumeó as perhaps being the epitome of “being human,” intense or passionate (epi) desire. “Focused passion” might be appropriate here. Remember the Passion of the Messiah? His focused mission was this: ~ For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost ~ (Matthew 18,11)
Hamartia, (another good Greek word also describes sin as “missing the mark.” Aim for the right target! Fall passionately in love, (yes! – please do!), but “fall in love” with the resurrected Christ!!
Remember this command? It is the very first of the ten and holds a Providential place of prominence above all others as well it should! ~ You shall love the LORD your God with (what?) ALL your heart-soul-mind-and strength! God jealously desires the ALL of who we are. (All, y’all)
“Commanded” to covet? ~ Now eagerly desire (zēloute) the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way..
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, a but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love.
Oh, most excellent, Carl! Thank you! A whole lesson! Commanded to covet! We were made to covet! Its WHAT we covet that counts. Got it! The difference between the Yetzer ha-ra and the Yetzer tov, then, is the FOCUS of the coveting. Then, this turns into asking the question “What (or Who!) do I covet”? Intense passion: we are made for it. Where we direct that passion? All the difference when there is a Mark to aim for!
Covetousness for the sake of benefiting the kingdom of Me, then, is sin. Coveting (being jealous) for the sake of benefiting the Kingdom of YHVH, then, gives that passion the right impetus and direction. Benefiting Him and others, then, is the correct way to go about benefiting me! We all win! (Or, we all lose, if I do not choose correctly.) We were designed for an infinite number of connections and interrelatedness in all directions at all times in all ways. The choices, directions and actions of love, then take these into account. The more the flow, the more the fun! The kingdom of Self, however, is a kingdom of ever-increasing torment: nothing in, nothing out. ‘Me’ is truly the Bottomless Pit of the Apocalypse that the devil holds the only key to. The focus on Me is a downward spiral straight to hell. G-d forbid!
I feel like my brain just ate a huge meal! There are flavors and textures that are so different at this table than what is served up elsewhere.
LaVaye Billings,
How are you doing? Thank you for asking about my daughter. Chloe was 3 years old when we laid down the body of her mommy for the last time in this life (waiting in hope for that Day!). It has been ten years now and counting. Chloe is 13 now and growing into a beautiful young woman! She is still daddy’s girl but growing into her own person.
I have a few more things to write, but getting ready for work is upon me. Please pray for her!
Thank you precious sister for your concern. Much shalom to you and your house.
YHWH is King!