The doctrine of “original sin” asserts that all human nature was corrupted due to the first sin by Adam and Eve and, therefore, all humans since then are born inherently sinful, or with a sinful nature; some people go as far as to say man is born depraved or evil.
What has come to be viewed as the doctrine of original sin is, in fact, a “theological construct”. This means it isn’t explicitly laid out in the Christian Scriptures, but rather derives from quilting together various passages and beliefs.
Traditional Jewish beliefs 1
The term “original sin” is unknown to the Jewish Scriptures, and the Church’s teachings on this doctrine are antithetical to the core principles of the Torah and its prophets. Immediately after the sin of Adam and Eve is narrated, the Torah declares that man can master his passionate lust for sin. God turns to Cain and warns him, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? If, though, you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you shall master over it (Gen 4:6-7).
Notice this passage refers to sin as an outside force seeking to master us through temptation, not an internal force seeking an outlet. Temptation comes to us all and forces us to decide between doing what is right or doing what is sinful; this is the battle that Cain was fighting. Cain knew what was right to do, the question is, would he do it?
In Cain’s life, as in ours, sin was pulling him in one direction, and his knowledge of doing what is right was pulling him in the opposite direction. This is something we all must come to grips with.
The word ‘crouching’ refers to lying in wait like a predator lurking for its prey. The same verb is associated with an ancient Semitic term for demons believed to guard building entrances or doorways. Thus, the text characterises sin as a demonic presence or a predatory animal waiting to pounce on Cain. Sin desires to tempt us, to pounce on us and master us, eventually leading us into deeper sin and eventual destruction and death.
James explains this in James 1:5: “Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death”. In this, Cain is an example to us all.
Notice there is nothing in the Eden narrative that could be construed as supporting the doctrine of original sin. On the contrary, in just these two inspiring verses, the Torah dispels forever the Church’s teachings on original sin.
The doctrine of original sin has always been totally unacceptable to Jews, who believe that man enters the world free of sin, with a soul that is pure and innocent and untainted. Jews believe that man sins because he is not a perfect being, and not, as Christianity teaches, because he is inherently sinful. This belief is still held firmly by them as well as by the Eastern Orthodox church and some other Christian denominations.
So, when did the concept of original sin originate?
The entrance of the belief in original sin 2.
The main proponent and the person who coined the term “Original sin” was Augustine around the late 4th Century AD. Before Augustine, several Christian teachers had already linked Adam's fall to universal human sinfulness: Irenaeus described humanity as immature and needing recapitulation in Christ; others went further: Tertullian coined the phrase tradux peccati — the transmission of sin through the soul across generations; Ambrose taught that sin is inherited with birth. However, Augustine significantly expanded these ideas, and through him they became an accepted Christian belief.
Saint Augustine (354-430) was the first theologian to teach that man is born into this world in a state of sin. The basis of his belief comes from several sources, primarily Gnosticism and Manichaeism3. Both were cults he was part of before he studied and turned to Christianity. They both taught that man is born flawed physical matter and advocated that “the nature of man can be corrupt to the point that his will is powerless to obey God’s commands.
When it comes to Christianity, he took his Gnostic and Manichaean views along with the Genesis account (Genesis 3:17-19) where Adam is described as having disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. This, the first sin of man, became known as original sin. He believed that original sin had the power to cause all men born after Adam to be born with a sinful nature and to be born in total depravity.
Augustine, and some others after him, began to shift the language and belief of the church to an inborn sin nature. Once that happened, all the theological focus turned to fixing the problem of sin. The cross was seen differently, and salvation became primarily about sin management, and human bodies became suspect, and on and on. The idea developed incrementally in the writings of the early Church fathers in the centuries after the New Testament was composed, and was picked up by men like Irenaeus and formalised through church councils.
Because the church councils formalised and approved it, Original Sin became accepted by the Western, or Roman, branch of Christianity as a doctrine – a formalised and accepted belief or truth.
Before Augustine’s influence, the Jews, Jesus (as a Jew), and the early church fathers talked about sin as an action or an illness.
Scripture certainly talks about the universal reach of sin. But no passage or verse in Scripture speaks definitively to the concept of an inborn sin nature.
Early Church Fathers on Original Sin 4
The authors of the Didache, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Epistle of Barnabas, all from the late 1st or early 2nd centuries, say that children were born without sin; Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch, from the same period, all agreed that sin was something every man did, but did not explain its origin from anywhere.
The pre-Nicene church fathers all taught against the Gnostic idea that we are born with a sinful nature.
Verses show that man is not born with original sin
Gen 4:6,7 “Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.””
Eccl 7:29 “Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright, but they pursued many schemes.”
Ezek 18:20 “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” (Since the son does not bear the iniquity of the father, how could sin be passed down from Adam to successive generations? Sin cannot be inherited or passed from one person to another.)
Rom 7:7-8 “What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! But I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet. And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead.”
Deut 1:39 “Moreover, your little ones who, you said, would become plunder, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good and evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them, and they shall take possession of it.”
Psa 139:13-14 “For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14. I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well.”
Job 31:15 “Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?”
James 1:14–15 “But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. 15. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.”
Rom 6:16-18 “Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over, and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.”
Isa 7: 14- 16 “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.”
Heb 4:15 “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
2 Cor 5:20–21 “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
1 John 3:5 “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.”
1 Traditional Jewish beliefs - https://outreachjudaism.org/original-sin/
2. The entrance of original sin - https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/judaism-s-rejection-of-original-sin Sources: Kolatc, Alfred J. The Jewish Book of Why/The Second Jewish Book of Why. NY: Jonathan David Publishers, 1989.
3. Gnosticism - is a collection of ancient religious and philosophical ideas emerging in the Greco-Roman world and times. It emphasises attaining gnosis—secret or mystical spiritual knowledge—over orthodox religious authority. Gnostics believed the material world is flawed and created by an inferior deity, and that salvation requires escaping this realm.
Manichaeism - Manichaeism was a major religious movement founded by the Persian prophet Mani in the 3rd century AD. It is defined by its strict dualistic cosmology, which posits an ongoing, cosmic struggle between a good, spiritual realm of light and an evil, material realm of darkness. One of its major beliefs was “Humans possess a soul that belongs to the realm of light, but it is trapped inside the physical body, which belongs to the evil realm of darkness.” https://www.britannica.com/topic/Manichaeism
4. Quotes from Early church fathers https://bjorkbloggen.com/2014/04/01/quotes-from-the-old-church-fathers-where-they-deny-original-sin-sinful-nature/