Sin as Missing The Mark

The Greek word in the New Testament that denotes "sin" is "hamartia" which has its origins in Homeric Greek as a word in archery to denote "missing the mark".

Remember the crucial scene in the Odyssey, where the suitors all fail to string the bow, and Ulysses is the only one to both string the bow, and shoot the arrow through the small target.

Here is how Aristotle used the word in "Poetics" and in "Nichomachian Ethics"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamartia

http://www.alislam.org/books/essence2/chap17.html

excerpt from above link:

"The meaning of the Arabic word for sin is to incline and to move away from the true centre. When a person moves away from God and withdraws from the light which descends upon the hearts from God, he is involved in a darkness which becomes a source of torment for him. Then he suffers the same type of torment of which type is his turning away. If he wishes to revert to the centre and transports himself to the spot where that light falls, he regains the light. As we observe in the world that we enjoy light in a room when we open its windows, in the same way, in the spiritual system to return to the true centre becomes the source of comfort and rescues from the suffering which had resulted from departing from the centre. This is called repentance. "

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http://de.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061011182924AAQLtiC

(excerpt from above link)
The Hebrew word for sin is avera. Teshuva (Hebrew תשובה, returning), is the way of atoning for sin in Judaism.
Judaism describes three levels of sin:
---o Pesha פשע or Mered - An intentional sin; an action committed in deliberate defiance of God; (Strong's Concordance :H6588 (פשעpesha', peh'shah). According to Strong it comes from the root (:H6586); rebellion, transgression, trespass.
---o Avon - This is a sin of lust or uncontrollable emotion. It is a sin done knowingly, but not done to defy God; (Strong's Concordance :H5771 (avon, aw-vone). According to Strong it comes from the root (:H5753); meaning perversity, moral evil:--fault, iniquity, mischief.
---o Cheit - חַטָּא This is an unintentional sin, crime or fault. (Strong's Concordance :H2399 (khate). According to Strong it comes from the root khaw-taw (:H2398, H2403) meaning "to miss, to err from the mark (speaking of an archer), to sin, to stumble."

The Arabic word for sin is ذنب dhanb. Tab\wba (returning), is the way of atoning for sin in Islam.

Islam distinguishes several gradations of sin:
---o sayyia, khatia: mistakes (Suras 7:168; 17:31; 40:45; 47:19 48:2)
---o itada, junah, dhanb: immorality (Suras 2:190,229; 17:17 33:55)
---o haram: transgressions (Suras 5:4; 6:146)
---o ithm, dhulam, fujur, su, fasad, fisk, kufr: wickedness and depravity (Suras 2:99, 205; 4:50, 112, 123, 136; 12:79; 38:62; 82:14)
---o shirk: ascribing a partner to Allah (Sura 4:48)

Every child is born “fitrat“ (nature) without any sin (guiltless or innocent) and he remains such unless he intentionally commits a sin (i.e. disobeys Allah's commandments). Muslims believe that Allah is angered by sin and punishes some sinners with the fires of Hell (jahannam), but that He is also the Merciful (ar-rahman) and the Forgiving (al-ghaffar), and forgives those who repent and serve Him.

The word in Arabic for "holy" is zakiyya, a word with the root meaning "purity". This form of the word principally means "innocent, pure, clean, faultless". Islam accepts that Jesus and his mother were zakiyya.

Throughout the Muslim world today it is generally believed that all of the prophets enjoyed an "isma", a protection against sin, and that they were accordingly sinless. It is one of the anomalies of Islam that this doctrine has been established and maintained against the plain teaching of the Quran and Hadith to the contrary.
Quelle(n):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morality
http://www.zoomnet.net/~bbratt/sin.html
http://www.mechon-mamre.org/
http://www.jewfaq.org/613.htm
http://www.themodernreligion.com/misc/hh/major_sins.htm
http://www.islamic.org.uk/I4WM/sinof.htm
http://www.backtoislam.com/?p=69
http://www.answering-islam.org/Silas/mo-sinner.htm
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