SIN.....
http://www.wordorigins.org/wordort.htm#Trespass
Trespass/Debt/Sin
Many people wonder about the word choice in different versions of the Lord's Prayer. One version, favored by Roman Catholics and Anglicans, uses the phrase
forgive us our trespasses. To the modern ear,
trespass seems an odd word to use. Another version, favored by Protestants of the Reformed tradition, says
forgive us our debts, another odd choice to the modern ear. Many modern translations simply use the word
sin instead. Why the difference? It has to do with translation.
Matthew, writing in Greek, uses the word
opheilemata, which has a literal meaning of financial debt, but which also has a metaphorical sense of spiritual obligation. This sense of debt meaning spiritual obligation is also present in Aramaic writings of the period and Jesus, who spoke and taught in Aramaic, uses this metaphor in various parables. Luke, however, has a different version of the prayer in which he uses the Greek
hamartia, a word that quite literally means sin.
When it came to producing an English Bible, translators had to choose which English word to use.
Wyclif (1384) and the translators of the King James Version (1611) chose to use
debt to translate Matthew's
opheilemata.
Debt dates to c. 1300 and is from the Old French
dete or
dette. The letter B was artificially inserted into the spelling in the 16th century to parallel the ultimate Latin root,
debita. This preserved the original Aramaic metaphor, but had the problem of the fact that
debt did not have a sense of sin or violation in English. And such a sense of the word has never really developed in English. Use of
debt to mean sin is pretty much limited to the translation of this particular verse.
William Tyndale, on the other hand, chose the word
trespass for his translation (1525). This word did have a sense of sin in English, although it did not preserve the original metaphor.
Trespass is from the Old French
trespas, literally meaning passage, but also having the sense of offense against the law. In English the word dates to c. 1290 and the original sense is the general one of a violation of law or a sin. The more usual modern sense, unlawful entry onto real property, doesn't appear until c. 1455.
Many modern translators prefer the straightforward
sin. In English, this is the oldest of the three words, from the Old English
syn and dating to c. 825. It has cognates in other Germanic languages and it may be related to the Latin
sons, meaning guilty.
There is a belief that
sin derives from some archery term meaning to miss the target. This tale stems from confusion and misunderstanding of preachers giving Sunday sermons. The English word
sin has no such etymology. The Greek
hamartia, however, can literally mean to fall short or miss, especially in the archery context. Preachers sometimes use this Greek etymology as a sermon illustration and people confuse it with the etymology of the English word. The sermon illustration, however, is somewhat flawed. By the time of Christ the archery sense of
hamartia was obsolete, so the sermon illustration is anachronistic. To Christ and his contemporaries it would simply mean a violation of God's law
