The Mystery of Original Sin
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Original sin, according to Christian doctrine, is the first sin committed by Adam and Eve, expressed in their disobedience to God’s command. God clearly commanded, “Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” but Adam and Eve disobeyed this command, marking the first act of defiance against the Creator’s will. From a scriptural perspective, it is this act that introduced sin into the world, for until that moment disobedience did not exist, and consequently, neither did sin. Disobedience was the first manifestation of sin, and through Adam it spread to all his descendants.
Thus, a person is born with a predisposition to disobedience and an inner rebellion against the will of the Creator. This rebellion may manifest with varying intensity, but it is present in every individual as evidence of a broken will unwilling to submit to God. Even in children this element is present; however, it should be emphasized that this is not the sin for which God will judge, provided—God forbid—that children die in infancy.
The root of sin, or the so-called “fifth column,” exists within every person, and in Jewish tradition it is referred to as “yecer ara” – an evil principle that drives one to resist God’s commandments and His governance in our lives. Christ died to free people from this inner inclination toward rebellion. In his Epistle to the Romans, the Apostle Paul refers to this power as the “flesh,” which in Hebrew is denoted by the term “basar.”
An important aspect is that people are not born sinful in the literal sense. They are born spiritually dead as a result of Adam’s sin, meaning they are incapable of functioning fully for God. In this sense, humanity is “broken” and in need of “tikkun” – restoration. That is why God bestows His Spirit upon people, to revive them and restore them for righteous living. The work of Christ, including His death and resurrection, is aimed at this rebirth and correction.
It is important to note that it is not Adam’s sin itself that is transmitted, but the sinful nature that arose as a consequence of the entry of sin into the world. Scripture clearly states that each person will be held accountable for their actions, and thus it cannot be claimed that people are guilty of Adam’s sin. Adam is responsible for his own act, and each of us for our own. Here, it is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of “sin” and “sinfulness”: sin is a specific act, whereas sinfulness is the nature, the predisposition to such acts.
When Adam sinned, he opened himself up to a new nature – the nature of sin, which subjugated him and his descendants. It should be noted that the concept of original sin was introduced by Augustine, who substantiated this teaching in his treatise De diversis quaestionibus ad Simplicianum in 396. Before Augustine, the concept of original sin did not exist in Christian theology. The term peccatum originale (original sin) became part of Western theology thanks to Augustine, while the Eastern Christian tradition, relying on the Jewish understanding of Scripture, long maintained a different approach to the fall of man.
