Misquoting Jesus Podcast
Where Did Original Sin Come From?
Show notes
Links Mentioned in this Episode:
- https://www.bartehrman.com/BSA - To find out more about the BSA Peer Support Sharing Group, or other great features of the Biblical Studies Academy, such as our full library of 60+ university-level courses, monthly live sessions with Bart Ehrman, and a community of 1,700+ truth-seekers, no academic jargon, and no one telling you what to believe.
*Episode Outline:*
What is original sin, and is the doctrine actually found in the Bible?
What Christians mean by “original sin” and how it differs from Adam and Eve’s first sin Misquoting Jesus - episode 208 …
Why Adam and Eve were really expelled from the Garden of Eden
Why Genesis never actually calls Adam and Eve’s disobedience “sin”
How sin develops as a major idea throughout the Hebrew Bible
Forgiveness vs. atonement: two different biblical solutions to sin
What Jews in Jesus’ time believed about sin and forgiveness
Did Jesus teach forgiveness or atonement for sin?
How Jesus’ followers transformed his death into a sacrifice for sins
Paul’s view of Jesus’ death as an atonement
Did ancient Jews believe Adam’s sin was inherited by all humanity?
Romans 5, Adam, and the verse that helped create the doctrine of original sin
Augustine, Pelagius, and the debate over whether humans can choose not to sin
How original sin helped shape the doctrines of the Virgin Birth and Immaculate Conception
Why Catholics and Protestants understand original sin differently
Bart’s Soapbox: Has biblical scholarship lowered its standard of evidence?
*Episode Description*
What is sin, where did the idea come from, and what did Jesus teach about it? For many Christians, the answer centers on original sin: the belief that humanity inherited a sinful nature from Adam and Eve that can only be overcome through Christ’s atoning death. In this episode, Dr. Bart Ehrman explores how this doctrine developed and why its history is more complicated than many assume.
The discussion begins with Genesis. Bart points out that the serpent is never identified as Satan, and Adam and Eve’s sin is simply disobedience to God’s command. Their expulsion from Eden, he argues, is primarily meant to prevent them from eating from the Tree of Life and becoming immortal, rather than functioning only as punishment for their sin.
From there, Bart examines two ways the Hebrew Bible deals with wrongdoing:
1. *Forgiveness:* A person repents, confesses, and changes their behavior, and God forgives the offense without requiring payment.
2. *Atonement:* In texts such as Leviticus, sacrifices provide restitution for wrongdoing.
Bart emphasizes the distinction: forgiveness cancels a debt, while atonement pays it.
According to Bart, Jesus emphasized forgiveness. In the Lord’s Prayer, for example, Jesus teaches followers to ask God to forgive their debts just as they forgive others. Bart argues that the historical Jesus taught repentance and divine forgiveness rather than requiring an atoning sacrifice for salvation.
After Jesus’s crucifixion, however, his followers faced the challenge of explaining why the Messiah had been executed. They came to interpret his death as part of God’s plan: Jesus had died as a sacrifice for human sin. The focus therefore shifted from Jesus’s message of repentance and forgiveness to a message about Jesus’s atoning death.
Paul developed this theology further by contrasting Adam, through whom sin and death entered the world, with Christ, who brings salvation. Romans became especially important. While the Greek states that death spread to all “because all sinned,” the Latin translation was understood as saying that “in Adam all sinned.”
This interpretation became central to the doctrine of original sin. Augustine of Hippo argued that humanity participated in Adam’s sin and inherited his guilt, developing the influential idea that this sinful condition was biologically transmitted from generation to generation.
*Also watch these episodes:*
Sin, Death, and Salvation: Paul's Mysterious View
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUeOsvPIXv0
Paul and Jesus at Odds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRn_Lrzr4JE
Did Paul Accept the Teachings of Jesus?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lDz6XCEgMI
#OriginalSin
#AdamAndEve
#sinandsalvation
#Atonement
#Forgiveness
#ApostlePaul
Find your path New to biblical scholarship? - https://www.bartehrman.com/BSA - To find out more about the BSA Peer Support Sharing Group, or other great features of the Biblical Studies Academy, such as our full library of 60+ university-level courses, monthly live sessions with Bart Ehrman, and a community of 1,700+ truth-seekers, no academic jargon, and no one telling you what to believe.
*Episode Outline:*
What is original sin, and is the doctrine actually found in the Bible?
What Christians mean by “original sin” and how it differs from Adam and Eve’s first sin Misquoting Jesus - episode 208 …
Why Adam and Eve were really expelled from the Garden of Eden
Why Genesis never actually calls Adam and Eve’s disobedience “sin”
How sin develops as a major idea throughout the Hebrew Bible
Forgiveness vs. atonement: two different biblical solutions to sin
What Jews in Jesus’ time believed about sin and forgiveness
Did Jesus teach forgiveness or atonement for sin?
How Jesus’ followers transformed his death into a sacrifice for sins
Paul’s view of Jesus’ death as an atonement
Did ancient Jews believe Adam’s sin was inherited by all humanity?
Romans 5, Adam, and the verse that helped create the doctrine of original sin
Augustine, Pelagius, and the debate over whether humans can choose not to sin
How original sin helped shape the doctrines of the Virgin Birth and Immaculate Conception
Why Catholics and Protestants understand original sin differently
Bart’s Soapbox: Has biblical scholarship lowered its standard of evidence?
*Episode Description*
What is sin, where did the idea come from, and what did Jesus teach about it? For many Christians, the answer centers on original sin: the belief that humanity inherited a sinful nature from Adam and Eve that can only be overcome through Christ’s atoning death. In this episode, Dr. Bart Ehrman explores how this doctrine developed and why its history is more complicated than many assume.
The discussion begins with Genesis. Bart points out that the serpent is never identified as Satan, and Adam and Eve’s sin is simply disobedience to God’s command. Their expulsion from Eden, he argues, is primarily meant to prevent them from eating from the Tree of Life and becoming immortal, rather than functioning only as punishment for their sin.
From there, Bart examines two ways the Hebrew Bible deals with wrongdoing:
1. *Forgiveness:* A person repents, confesses, and changes their behavior, and God forgives the offense without requiring payment.
2. *Atonement:* In texts such as Leviticus, sacrifices provide restitution for wrongdoing.
Bart emphasizes the distinction: forgiveness cancels a debt, while atonement pays it.
According to Bart, Jesus emphasized forgiveness. In the Lord’s Prayer, for example, Jesus teaches followers to ask God to forgive their debts just as they forgive others. Bart argues that the historical Jesus taught repentance and divine forgiveness rather than requiring an atoning sacrifice for salvation.
After Jesus’s crucifixion, however, his followers faced the challenge of explaining why the Messiah had been executed. They came to interpret his death as part of God’s plan: Jesus had died as a sacrifice for human sin. The focus therefore shifted from Jesus’s message of repentance and forgiveness to a message about Jesus’s atoning death.
Paul developed this theology further by contrasting Adam, through whom sin and death entered the world, with Christ, who brings salvation. Romans became especially important. While the Greek states that death spread to all “because all sinned,” the Latin translation was understood as saying that “in Adam all sinned.”
This interpretation became central to the doctrine of original sin. Augustine of Hippo argued that humanity participated in Adam’s sin and inherited his guilt, developing the influential idea that this sinful condition was biologically transmitted from generation to generation.
*Also watch these episodes:*
Sin, Death, and Salvation: Paul's Mysterious View
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUeOsvPIXv0
Paul and Jesus at Odds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRn_Lrzr4JE
Did Paul Accept the Teachings of Jesus?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lDz6XCEgMI
#OriginalSin
#AdamAndEve
#sinandsalvation
#Atonement
#Forgiveness
#ApostlePaul
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