A Multitude of Sins

Sometimes the light of language shines so bright as to blind a person.

This week I’ve had cause to encounter the sentence I am a sinner a few times, and it’s been twirling in my head for much of the day today. There are a handful of I am statements that have some meaningful resonance for me and for a lot of other people: Cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am), the heart of Cartesian rationalism; Ich bin ein berliner, John F. Kennedy’s much-maligned effort to form a Teutonic bond; I am woman, hear me roar, that estrogenic anthem of 2nd wave feminism.

But it wasn’t the I am part of this sentence that got caught in my thinker; it was the sinner part. That word — sin — causes all kinds of upset among all kinds of people no matter what they believe or don’t believe about it. So I decided to have a look.

It turns out that saying I am a sinner is, etymologically speaking, a bit pleonastic. The word sin derives ultimately from the same historical root as the words am, is, and are. German sein, sind, and ist, Spanish ser, soy, somos, eres, and es, and French être, suis, es, est, sommes, êtes, and sont are all cognate — all forms of the verb ‘to be.’ Other English relatives include essence, entity, interest, represent, and yes. The derivation of sin from its proto-forms involved the acknowledgment of guilt: I am (guilty) or It is (a true sin).

Look, my perspectives are not impeccable, and perhaps my suggestions herein are more than peccadillos. Certainly it’s not the case that every language’s word for ‘sin‘ is related to ‘being.’ Latinate languages, for example, have words for ‘sin‘ that are historically related to foot, pedal, podiatrist, fetter, impede, and impeach: etymologically, speaking, our feet are as likely to stumble as they are to walk; from the time we first stood upright, we began to fall.

Transgression is the human condition, or at least a big part of it. We make mistakes. We hurt each other. Sometimes deliberately, sometimes negligently. Mostly we apologize and try to make it right. We may not agree about what sin is, but we can all be confident that if any one of us does it, we all do it. I’m no theologian, but the etymology is pretty provocative: to be is to sin; to sin is to be. With all due respect to René Descartes, pecco, ergo sum.

 

10 Comments

  1. I found your words to be inspiring here. Your logic, to me, is certainly appealing and has encapsulated a lot of what I’ve been thinking lately. You put words to something I couldn’t myself. Great read!

  2. Caroline Francois says:

    This post literally made me gasp with surprise and some realisation. I’ll need to read it again and again and give it some serious thought, but I truly appreciate the message held in those meanings. Basically, we “put our foot in it” or we err because we are human. Wow!

  3. Susan Carlile says:

    This is an especially helpful point. Thanks.

  4. The One That Posts Here Occasionally says:

    This suggests that “original sin” is not just a Christian conception.

    • Hmm, how so, The One (that’s quite a profile name)? I’m not sure I see your point. As far as I know, the concept of “original sin” is indeed Christian — Jewish theologians are divided on the issue — but it was developed in Christianity. I think of it as being Augustinian, but I’m sure there were others involved. I don’t think that the etymology of an English word proves anything theological. It’s just an interesting and revelatory piece that tells us something about how our forebears conceived of and captured their world in language. It doesn’t say anything about the ownership (or non-ownership) of a concept.

      I’m also not convinced that the language evolved this way because of a sense of original sin; it’s not the case that English speakers decided to choose the word ‘sin’ because of its etymology. At the time the word was first attested, people really had no idea what etymology was.

      Anyhow, thanks for posting here this time (and occasionally), and if you’d care to clarify your point, I am all ears.

    • I don’t date the posts, Rebecca. The website dates them automatically, and it’s on GMT or some thing, not on US time. I posted late enough in the day that it was already 9/7 on the website’s calendar. My students used to freak out about this, because they were worried that their required posts would not be counted as on time.

  5. Ann Malone says:

    I absolutely love this explanation of the meaning of sin/sinner. ” I am, therefore I am. ” Be still and know that I am . . . . God. ….
    and man’s place in God’s heart are Still a Great Mystery to me but I love the idea of oneness, essence, entity
    Thank you.
    Ann

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