The ancient hindus have it(sanskrit)
papa-sin
punya-opposite of sin
The greeks have it
hamartia-sin (used to describe “sin” in greek versions of bible)
teleos - opposite of sin
The ancients egyptians have it
isfet - sin
ma’at -opposite of sin
The arabs had many, for example(arabic)
fasad - sin
salah - the opposite of sin
there are many other cultures and languages that have more or less almost perfect antonym for sin...but I have yet to find the perfect antonym for the word “sin”....
consider this as an explaination:
suppose you would write,
adultery is a sin.
In sanskrit, sin would be replaced by papa,
so in a “english-sanskrit hybrid"(I cannot frame a sentence in sanskrit, and I know that none of you guys know sanskrit either) it would be something like:
adultery is a “papa”.
in sanskrit one would have the liberty to use a double negative to express the same, that is,
Ever since in popular Catholic therefore Christian education, our traditional seven deadly sins have always stood in opposite polarity with the same number of contrary virtues, at least according to lay minstrel Prudentius born in Spain 348 AD died sometime between terminus post quem autobiographical preface dated 405 and year 408 when Patrician magister militum “Master of Soldiers” Stilicho was so brutally put to avenging sword and grim condemnatio memoriae or somewhat haphazardly “corruption of blood” forthwith proclaimed upon all his living descendants!
A. Sin imported here through clerical Latin peccatum as likewise “vice” yet from vitium even today:
1. Lust or else original “schoolboy” parlance luxuria
2. Gluttony or gula
3. Greed or avaritia
4. Sloth or acedia
5. Wrath or ira
6. Envy or invidia
7. Pride or superbia
B. Contrary virtues or septem virtutes sanctae “seven holy virtues” from yon poet’s Latin allegory Psychomachia “Contest of the Soul” in early 5.cent AD:
peccatum - sin or ἁμαρτία in corresponding Attic Greek
honestum - opposite of sin or just “virtue” ἀρετή rather than given Hellenic adjective τέλεος which simply means “perfect” instead.
Perhaps then it bodes not too strange for Roman laureate and canonical poet Virgil 70-19 BC* to delimit those classical Greek Ἐρινύες or “Furies” to the same corresponding number of divine Hesiod’s celestial triad Χάριτες or “Graces” as so related in his Olympian triumph Theogony “Birth of the Gods” 907-909 v. infra although no principal authority ever yet left behind some hard & fast rule of antipodal symmetry between any two feminine allegories, such as our most righteous brother Prudentius did somewhat later on with his seven holy virtues already discussed above.
*n.b. strident use of Latin epithet Dirae inserted here to replace the old nomenclature Furiae and so help us recognize his truly sensational, epic tribute Aeneid “Song of Aeneas” 12.845-848 cited as follows:
Dicuntur geminae pestes cognomine Dirae,
quas et Tartaream Nox intempesta Megaeram
uno eodemque tulit partu paribusque revinxit
serpentum spiris ventosasque addidit alas.
By surname are twin pestilences Furies called,
To them and to Megaera whom Tartarus bounds
Unwelcome Nox gave simultaneous birth and braids
With serpent’s match tied back, and airborne wings held fast.
The ancient hindus have it(sanskrit)
papa-sin
punya-opposite of sin
The arabs had many, for example(arabic)
fasad - sin
salah - the opposite of sin
It can be difficult to translate between cultures. For example, Chinese had no word for ‘sin’ before the advent of Christian missionaries. The word that was chosen rather means foolishness, stupidity, without any original notion of angering imaginary beings.
Trying to find your Arabic pair, I get a fasaad which primarily has connections to being rotten, corrupt, decayed, putrified, probably only in a secondary sense connected to moral values. Not surprisingly, the possible antonym SalaaH (capitals for emphatic letters) means goodness, properness, rightness etc.
In the same way, you won’t find Sanskrit words that have a 1:1 correspondence to sin (however you define it) or an antonym of sin (if you find one). Paapa means bad, vicious, wicked, evil, low etc. PuNya (capital for the retroflex n) translates as auspicious, propitious, fair, pleasant, good, right, virtuous, meritorious, pure, holy, sacred.
Sources: Hans Wehr: Arabic-English Dictionary (ed. J.M. Cowan), Monier Monier-Williams: A Sanskrit-English Dictionary.
Translation is an art. It’s difficult to explain to the artistically challenged.
Were Christian missionaries really the first to introduce an awareness of sin, or a name for it,
to China, or to any other place? If so, why have anthropologists and archaeologists found, in cultures
world-wide and across the ages, evidence of sacrifice, if there
has not been a nearly universal recognition of a Creator who can be angered even as
He is open to appeals for mercy?
Is it not natural that the sense of the word for spiritual decay, which cannot be seen, be used only secondarily to
its sense of physical decay, which can be? Is it not the hallmark of an artist the ability to overcome the limitations
of the artistically challenged, to make such translations for them?
In the end, though, I find myself agreeing with you about the existence of a 1:1 pairing of sin and its antonym.
I’m still longing to know, perfectly, the antonym for sin.
Grace comes close, as someone upthread has reminded us.
Grace’n’Truth comes even closer.
Clearly if human or any other form of blood sacrifice redeems wayward sinners then to sin is not to sacrifice at all; absolutely paramount, however, must indeed describe what results when you combine spiritual and physical to get moral decay; such didactic techniques, furthermore, as classical mythology and literary allegories not only inspire challenging works of extraordinary art, but also help us to understand ourselves and so better recognize where now we may and hereafter sit.
Tell that to someone who has just offered up the first fruits of his herd or flock!
And if the Sacrificer and the “Sacrifee” are part of the Trinity?
That’s a horse of an entirely different color, one must admit, even if one does not believe in a Trinity.
No, I was replying to the statement “Surely, blood sacrifice is no sacrifice at all.” But it’s not fair of me, I revised
comment #7 multiple times before you ever saw it.
....I have waited until a suitable interval passed so you’d have time to finish editing comment #8, which now stands, I trust, as you wish it to be, as #9 remains as I wish it to be.
I thank you for the Virgil and Hesiod excerpts earlier this summer; they were lovely. Indeed, the Truth behind any didactic or classical myth or literary allegory does inspire great works of art—it is that Truth which the artist tries to translate for those who are wondering how we got here and how we’ll get back Home. Triads are everywhere to be found in classical myths and religions—the Furies and the Graces, the Hindu trinity Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Is the Christian Trinity merely a copy of these, or are all the trinity concepts reflections or corruptions or approximations of some deep truth about the Universe?
Ah, triads. Did you know that e ^ (-i*pi) + 1 = 0? (Euler, for whom the natural exponent “e” is named, discovered this: try it at home on your calculator!) “e” and “pi” are each almost three, being 2.71828…and 3.14159…respectively. It seems the imaginary Sky God threw the “ imaginary number “i” into the works to get the equation to work out so poetically.
Well one more minute away from my studies and I will be committing the opposite of the antonym of sin. Thanks for the discussion.
Sir Isaac Newton 1643-1727 who in the dwindling twilight of a brilliant career saw to more than just one grisly & horrible execution of some poor counterfeiter, thereby loosing what juridical fury consumed his advanced nature, also observed very early on but in academic life such uncanny precision as was evident between phenomenal mathematics and transcendent morality.
The ancient hindus have it(sanskrit)
papa-sin
punya-opposite of sin
The arabs had many, for example(arabic)
fasad - sin
salah - the opposite of sin
It can be difficult to translate between cultures. For example, Chinese had no word for ‘sin’ before the advent of Christian missionaries. The word that was chosen rather means foolishness, stupidity, without any original notion of angering imaginary beings.
I am a Taiwanese/Chinese. In Chinese we use the word 罪 to denote sin. 罪 in Chinese basically means “crime”, not foolishness or stupidity. 罪 can be applied to supernatural beings as well, though not so close in sense as in Christianity. In Chinese we have an expression 獲罪於天，無所禱也 which basically means if you angered Heaven, do not expect to pray again.
Taiwanese admonition 獲罪於天，無所禱也 shown here in traditional formula = pinyin version huò zuì yú tiān, wúsuǒ dǎo yě of (simplified) 国语 or (traditional) 國語 guóyǔ “national language” and probably requires yet extensive meaningful context to interpret as well: “If you acquire sin [or crime] in heaven, prayer will acquire thee nothing” but thanks anyway for all your wonderful help, old sport!
