SIN - to miss the mark

SIN - to miss the mark

The old fashioned word 'sin' makes a lot of people uncomfortable, but it's a simple word with a surprisingly interesting meaning. The English word is a term from archery; it's presence in the pages of the Bible is due to the extreme accuracy of the 16th century translator, William Tyndale. He chose precisely the correct English word to translate the original Hebrew. We find the underlying sense of the word in this verse from the early days of the nation of Israel. Judges 20:16 [King James Version] Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hairbreadth, and not miss. The word 'miss' in that verse is 'chata' - 'to sin, to miss the mark'. William Tyndale actually used the word 'sin' in his version . The formal definition of the word 'sin' when it is used in its 'wrongdoing' sense is given by John in one of his letters... 1 John 3:4-5 [New International Version] Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. ...but it's important to realize that this isn't a pompous religious word. In mediaeval England all adult males were required to practice archery as often as free time allowed. Football was banned because it interfered with the king's ability to raise armies of deadly accurate bowmen. So everyone who read Master Tyndale's magnificent translation knew precisely what the Bible meant when it warned against sin - failing to hit the target - and the target was God's law. Interestingly John goes on in verse 5... But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. He's writing of Jesus, and he doesn't just say that Jesus didn't break the Law, but that he never missed the mark that God set. What we're trying to show you is that the Bible is written in plain language and tells us understandable things about God and our relationship with him. The decision to use the word 'miss' in that verse from Judges, when the King James Version was published almost 80 years after Tyndale, wasn't taken because English had changed and a different word was needed; it was because using so plain a word as sin, which everyone who spoke English understood, would suggest to the common people that there was a target to be hit that common men could comprehend. The rulers and high churchmen were not willing to give up the peoples' slavish dependence on them that they had built-up over hundreds of years, so they changed the word from 'sin' to 'miss' and hid the simplicity of the message away. The Bible really is written in everyday language, so we can all understand its message and aim at the mark that God sets for us in its pages. [EWF]