Original sin and parents

[Big_Dummy]

Is original sin inherited through the father or through the mother or through both parents?

How exactly are we infected with Adam’s sin?

How can your answer be demonstrated through historical documents and proven via scripture?

 

[NHInsider]

This is a subject that has been debated since before the beginning of Christianity. And one that has developed divergent theories in Catholic and some Protestant theologies. So -before I spend a lot of time going through constructing a thoughtful answer, I need to know if this is your own question, a homework assignment, an attempt to stimulate a discussion, or a set-up with the intent of proving Catholics wrong?

All are probably reasonable options, but I don’t enjoy arguing for the sake of arguing. Others may be willing to play.

 

[Della]

Is original sin inherited through the father or through the mother or through both parents?

How exactly are we infected with Adam’s sin?

How can your answer be demonstrated through historical documents and proven via scripture?

I think you are misunderstanding what original sin is. It’s not something we are infected with or inherited, it’s something we all lack–saving grace.

When Adam and Eve sinned they lost their relationship with God based on love alone. They cut themselves, and so their children, off from him. Christ has restored our relationship with God through the sacrament of baptism.

Just think of it, all God asked us to do is have a bit of water sprinkled on us and a few words spoken in order to restore all we lost in Adam and Eve’s disobedience.

One doesn’t need any deep, dark history of man’s inhumanity to man to prove original sin. Just watch a couple of toddlers fight over a toy and hit each other out of selfishness. We’ve lost something all right–we lost right reason, the will to do good at all times, and the ability to discern right from wrong in all circumstances. These have been restored to us in Christ and in his witness and voice in the world, his Church.

 

[grannymh]

Catholic teaching regarding Adam and Original Sin is found in the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, ISBN: 1-57455-109-4
Paragraphs 355-421.

The good news of Jesus Christ follows in Paragraph 422, etc.

One can put paragraph numbers and topics such as Adam, etc. in the Catechism’s search bar in link www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

 

[Cachonga]

Rom 5:12 says, “Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned --” (RSV). 1 Cor 15:22 says, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (RSV). Gen 3:15 says, ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."’ (RSV).

Based on these Scriptures (for starters), it seems clear that original sin is passed on to us by our fathers, and that is why Jesus had to be virgin-born (the seed of the woman). This, of course, is my own, fallible opinion, but I believe it is supported by Scripture.

Hope this helps!

 

[Flame4]

Hmm, well your looking at original sin as if it were biological, like an illness. Its somthing spiritual, so its not like genetics. But if you want to think that way I would say that since BOTH Adam and Eve sinned, we recieve it from both parents

 

[Benadam]

The generative power of human reproduction has it’s earthly origin in males. Every man born of woman inherits the distortion of soul that happened to Adam when he disobeyed God. By his disobedience to God he disobeyed the higher faculties that operated preturnatural powers in preference to the lower faculties of sense. This disobedience resulted in the bodies rebellion. The lower faculties which operate through corporeal organs ( the eyes for example) usurp the rule of the higher faculties and the body no longer voluntarilly obeys the will. This distortion of the soul is passed through the generative power of reproduction. It prevents the soul from being able to recieve Grace and the preturnatural powers of it’s former state. Even though it is known that this distortion is passed through the generative power just how this happens is a mystery.

 

[Crumpy]

The others are looking at “the stain of original sin” in a logical or dogmatic way, I look at it in a pragmatic way.

We inherited the guilt of original sin, because we are outside of the garden of Eden; we were effectively cast out with them.

It doesn’t matter whether this is reckoned as inherited in some genetic way, since our faith indicates that all human beings are considered as such – it doesn’t matter – there’s no one who does not have this guilt.

If you need a junk-science answer, then consider that it is transmitted on maternal ribosomal RNA, since we are all descended from one human female in the distant past, some 50,000 generations ago. But, that’s junk-religion as well, because it is not an infection, etc. as others have said.

I’m reading another Jewish scripture commentary that scoffs at the notion of original sin, which in turn makes me scoff at that idea that there is no original sin. I think it is obvious to anyone who reads the first several chapters of Genesis is that what Adam and Eve did was a sin and was greatly punished. It is obviously a very important morality story, one that people of all ages can appreciate, on face value.

Of course, there’s a lot more in the first several chapters of Genesis than what is at face value, but which is beyond the scope of this really simple question.

It’s good that the OP is asking questions, but those questions should drive the OP into study, looking at a lot of sources, to dig into the question. That’s exactly what the Bible does, is makes us ask questions and think. Read, pray, and think. Nobody here is going to call Big Dummy a big dummy for asking a question.

 

[grannymh]

Catholic teaching **regarding Adam and Original Sin ** is found in the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, ISBN: 1-57455-109-4
Paragraphs 355-421.

The good news of Jesus Christ follows in Paragraph 422, etc.

One can put paragraph numbers and topics such as Adam, etc. in the Catechism’s search bar in link www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

​

Blessings,
granny

These two websites contain TV ads about Catholicism. The first is from one of the Dioceses which is using them. The second is general information.

 

[Benadam]

using granny’s link and info I found this:
http://javascript<b></b>:openWindow('cr/404.htm');

404 How did the sin of Adam become the sin of all his descendants? The whole human race is in Adam “as one body of one man”.293 By this “unity of the human race” all men are implicated in Adam’s sin, as all are implicated in Christ’s justice. Still, the transmission of original sin is a mystery that we cannot fully understand. But we do know by Revelation that Adam had received original holiness and justice not for himself alone, but for all human nature. By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the** human nature** that they would then transmit in a fallen state.294 It is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all mankind, that is, by the transmission of a human nature deprived of original holiness and justice. And that is why original sin is called “sin” only in an analogical sense: it is a sin “contracted” and not “committed” - a state and not an act. http://javascript<b></b>:openWindow('cr/404.htm');

prop·a·ga·tion (prŏp’ə-gā’shən)

n.

1. 
   *]Multiplication or increase, as by natural reproduction.
   *]The process of spreading to a larger area or greater number; dissemination.
   *]Physics The act or process of propagating, especially the process by which a disturbance, such as the motion of electromagnetic or sound waves, is transmitted through a medium such as air or water.
   
   and
   

   406 The Church’s teaching on the transmission of original sin was articulated more precisely in the fifth century, especially under the impulse of St. Augustine’s reflections against Pelagianism, and in the sixteenth century, in opposition to the Protestant Reformation. Pelagius held that man could, by the natural power of free will and without the necessary help of God’s grace, lead a morally good life; he thus reduced the influence of Adam’s fault to bad example. The first Protestant reformers, on the contrary, taught that original sin has radically perverted man and destroyed his freedom; they identified the sin inherited by each man with the tendency to evil (concupiscentia), which would be insurmountable. The Church pronounced on the meaning of the data of Revelation on original sin especially at the second Council of Orange (529)296 and at the Council of Trent (1546).297

   Finally:
   [
   407 The doctrine of original sin, closely connected with that of redemption by Christ, provides lucid discernment of man’s situation and activity in the world.](http://javascriptpenWindow(‘cr/407.htm’)

 

[Big_Dummy]

So, it is inherted? How exactly does being made in God’s image, come into play? Was not both Adam and Eve made in God’s image? I hope so.

 

[Della]

So, it is inherted? How exactly does being made in God’s image, come into play? Was not both Adam and Eve made in God’s image? I hope so.

No, it isn’t “inherited”. You can’t pass on to others what you don’t have. Original sin is not a positive thing, like personal sin. It’s a lack of saving grace. Many people have the wrong idea about this. I’m afraid some folks here, well-meaning as they are, have given you the wrong impression. When Adam and Eve sinned they LOST saving grace. They didn’t gain anything that could be passed on to their children. We humans have lost right reason, true charity, and full will to do right. That is what we have lost and what the teachings and sacraments Christ gave us are meant to restore through his work of salvation for us. We were created in God’s image but that image has been marred, not lost altogether.

 

[Della]

The definition of original sin from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

405 Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam’s descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is wounded in the natural powers proper to it, subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin - an inclination to evil that is called concupiscence". Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ’s grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle.

 

[grannymh]

So, it is inherted? How exactly does being made in God’s image, come into play? Was not both Adam and Eve made in God’s image? I hope so.

We still are in God’s image because Adam’s human nature was wounded but not destroyed.

Adam’s human nature which was in a fallen state is transmitted by propagation to his descendents including us. This fallen state refers to human nature as being deprived of original holiness (sanctifying grace). By Revelation, we know that Adam had received original holiness not for himself alone, but for all human nature as it would be transmitted to descendents. Dang! Because of Adam’s very serious sin, our human nature arrives in the same state as his, i.e., the fallen state.

The good news is that God never abandoned humanity. Immediately, God promised Adam and Eve a Savior Who would reconcile human nature with God’s original purpose of having all humans remain in His eternal presence.

Blessings,
granny

Catholic teaching **regarding Adam and Original Sin **is found in the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, ISBN: 1-57455-109-4
Paragraphs 355-421.

The good news of Jesus Christ follows in Paragraph 422, etc.

One can put paragraph numbers and topics such as Adam, etc. in the Catechism’s search bar in link www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm