The Origin of Sin - Greece and Rome, Early Judaism and Christianity

List of contents

Preface and Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: The Greco-Roman World: The Unwritten Laws of the Gods
Chapter 2: The Hebrew Bible: Chasing after Foreign Gods
Chapter 3: The New Testament: Jesus’ Sense of Sin
Chapter 4: The Church Fathers and the Rabbis: The Transformation of Sin
A Final Word

About the author

David Konstan is Professor of Classics at New York University, USA.

Summary

Where did the idea of sin arise from? In this meticulously argued book, David Konstan takes a close look at classical Greek and Roman texts, as well as the Bible and early Judaic and Christian writings, and argues that the fundamental idea of "sin" arose in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, although this original meaning was obscured in later Jewish and Christian interpretations.

Through close philological examination of the words for "sin," in particular the Hebrew hata' and the Greek hamartia, he traces their uses over the centuries in four chapters, and concludes that the common modern definition of sin as a violation of divine law indeed has antecedents in classical Greco-Roman conceptions, but acquired a wholly different sense in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament.

Product details

• Authors: David Konstan, Konstan David
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 10.02.2022
• EAN: 9781350278585
• ISBN: 978-1-350-27858-5
• No. of pages: 216
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; HISTORY / Ancient / General, PHILOSOPHY / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, RELIGION / Christian Theology / Ethics, RELIGION / Ancient, Christianity, Ethics & moral philosophy, Ethics and moral philosophy, Ancient History, Ancient history: to c 500 CE, Ancient religions & mythologies, Ancient religions and Mythologies