Original Sin
Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned.Romans 5:12 · World English Bible
Original Language & Text
Genesis 2-3 never uses a Hebrew phrase equivalent to 'original sin'; the term is a later theological construct. Romans 5:12 is pivotal: Paul writes death spread to all 'because all sinned' (eph' ho pantes hemarton), but the Greek eph' ho is ambiguous—translated 'because' by most, though the Latin Vulgate rendered it 'in whom' (in quo), giving Augustine 'in Adam all sinned,' a mistranslation that heavily shaped Western doctrine. Psalm 51:5's 'brought forth in iniquity' uses birth imagery to express pervasive sinfulness, though scholars debate whether it teaches inherited guilt or simply lifelong sinfulness. The Hebrew yetzer hara ('evil inclination') in rabbinic thought describes an innate impulse toward sin, distinct from but sometimes compared to Christian original sin.
Key Terms in the Original Language
“sin” (Rom. 5:12, sin “entered the world” through one man)
Augustine's doctrine of original sin is built substantially on Paul's language here; Eastern Orthodox and many Jewish readers read the same word without concluding that Adam's guilt itself is inherited.
“inclination” (Gen. 6:5, 8:21, the “inclination of the heart”)
Rabbinic Judaism developed this into the yetzer hara, an innate pull toward wrongdoing present from birth — a very different model from inherited guilt, built from the same Genesis vocabulary Christian original-sin theology also draws on.
History & Authorship
The formal doctrine of original sin was not systematized in the earliest church. Second-century and Eastern fathers spoke of inherited mortality and a wounded nature but not inherited guilt. Augustine of Hippo (4th-5th century), drawing on his Latin mistranslation of Romans 5:12 and his controversy with Pelagius—who denied inherited sinfulness and stressed free will—developed the fully articulated Western doctrine that humanity inherits both a corrupted nature and guilt from Adam, transmitted through procreation. The Councils of Carthage (418) and Orange (529) condemned Pelagianism and affirmed Augustinian views. Eastern Orthodoxy developed differently, emphasizing 'ancestral sin' (inherited mortality and corruption) while rejecting inherited guilt. The Reformation (Luther, Calvin) intensified Augustinian emphases on total depravity, while the Council of Trent (1546) reaffirmed a Catholic version tied to baptismal regeneration.
How This Debate Developed
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c. 411–418
Pelagian controversy
Pelagius denies inherited guilt and teaches humans can choose good without special grace; Augustine argues the opposite.
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418
Council of Carthage
Formally condemns Pelagianism, the first major church-wide ruling on the doctrine.
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431
Council of Ephesus
Also condemns Pelagianism alongside its Christological rulings.
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529
Second Council of Orange
Condemns semi-Pelagianism and affirms an Augustinian-leaning view of grace and original sin.
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1546
Council of Trent
Issues a formal Catholic decree on original sin, responding directly to Reformation-era disputes.
The Popular / Mainstream View
Most Western Christians—Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions alike—affirm some form of original sin: humanity inherits a fallen, sin-corrupted nature from Adam's disobedience, resulting in universal sinfulness and, in strict Augustinian/Reformed versions, inherited guilt requiring redemption through Christ. Catholics link this to the necessity of infant baptism; Reformed Protestants often emphasize 'total depravity.' Eastern Orthodoxy, while agreeing humanity inherits mortality, corruption, and a propensity to sin ('ancestral sin') from Adam, generally rejects inherited personal guilt, holding each person guilty only for their own actual sins.
Minority & Alternative Views
Pelagianism/Semi-Pelagianism
Pelagius and his followers denied that Adam's sin corrupted human nature or imputes guilt to descendants, holding each person is born morally neutral and sins only by free imitation of Adam's example. Condemned at Carthage (418) and Ephesus (431), a moderated 'semi-Pelagian' view—humans can take first steps toward God apart from grace—persisted and still influences some modern theologies.
Eastern Orthodox "Ancestral Sin"
Eastern Orthodoxy teaches humanity inherits mortality, corruption, and a tendency toward sin from Adam, but explicitly rejects the Augustinian notion of inherited legal guilt, holding guilt attaches only to personal sin. This shapes different views on infant baptism's purpose and avoids Augustine's Latin mistranslation of Romans 5:12 underlying Western formulations.
Jewish and liberal Christian rejection
Judaism generally does not hold a doctrine of inherited original sin, teaching instead that humans possess both good and evil inclinations (yetzer hatov and yetzer hara) and are responsible for their own choices. Some liberal Christian theologians likewise reinterpret Genesis 3 symbolically, describing a universal tendency toward sin rather than literal inherited guilt from a historical first couple.
What Scholars Say
Biblical scholars note Genesis 3 never uses the phrase 'original sin' and does not explicitly claim guilt is inherited; this theology developed later, substantially through Augustine's reading of Paul (partly via a Latin mistranslation of Romans 5:12). Historical-critical scholarship treats Genesis 2-3 as an etiological narrative explaining human mortality and moral struggle, without settling questions of historicity, while noting Second Temple Jewish texts (e.g., 4 Ezra) already reflect on Adam's sin's cosmic consequences. Confessional traditions differ sharply on whether the doctrine describes literal inherited guilt or a general condition of universal sinfulness.
What the Confessions Say
Reformed
“By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.”
Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), 6.2
Catholic
“Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church, §396–398
Anglican
“Original sin... is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil.”
Thirty-Nine Articles (1571), Article IX
Sources & Further Reading
- Augustine, City of God and Anti-Pelagian Writings
- Council of Carthage (418 CE)
- Council of Orange (529 CE)
- Council of Trent, Decree on Original Sin (1546)
- Pelagius, "Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans" (tr. Theodore de Bruyn, 1993)
- John S. Romanides, "The Ancestral Sin" (1957)
- Elaine Pagels, "Adam, Eve, and the Serpent" (1988)
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- How does Augustine's doctrine of inherited guilt differ from the Eastern Orthodox concept of "ancestral sin," and what different implications does each have for infant baptism?
- What was Pelagius actually arguing, and how fair is it to reduce "Pelagianism" to the caricature it is often given in later Western theology?
- Romans 5:12-19 is the key Pauline text. How do interpreters translate and construe the ambiguous Greek phrase traditionally rendered "because all sinned" — and how much of the doctrine's later shape depends on that translation choice?
- How do Jewish and some liberal Christian interpreters read the Genesis 3 narrative differently from the Augustinian tradition, and what do they see as lost or gained in each reading?
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