Sin or Sins

[CHRISTINE77]

I have noticed that many people sing “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world…” rather than “the** Sin **of the world”.

It sort of irritates me, because it is clearly supposed to be singular, not plural. The sin of the world is one, therefore the singular, not the plural, is used; though its manifestations are manifold (Joh 1:29). "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the SIN of the world.

I’m just surprised at how many people sing it wrong. Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[Marquette]

Yes, I have. I’ve only been a Catholic for 2-1/2 years so I thought maybe I was wrong when I sang singular “sin” of the world.

 

[japhy]

I have noticed that many people sing “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world…” rather than “the** Sin **of the world”.

Those are the proper words. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi… The Latin peccata is a plural noun: “sins”.

The text of the liturgy is not always word-for-word from Scripture. Perhaps we say peccata (instead of peccatum) because the liturgy is deriving from both John 1:29 and 1 John 2:2.

The Catholic Encyclopedia entry may be of interest to you.

 

[Phemie]

I have noticed that many people sing “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world…” rather than “the** Sin **of the world”.

It sort of irritates me, because it is clearly supposed to be singular, not plural. The sin of the world is one, therefore the singular, not the plural, is used; though its manifestations are manifold (Joh 1:29). "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the SIN of the world.

I’m just surprised at how many people sing it wrong. Has anyone else noticed this?

Er, they sing ‘sins’ because that’s what it is.

In the Gloria it’s ‘you take away the sin of the world’ but in the Lamb of God it’s ‘you take away the sins of the world’.

 

[benedictgal]

Actually, if you look at the Spanish translation, the OP may have a point. In Spanish, the Agnus Dei reads like this:

Cordero de Dios, que quitas el pecado del mundo, ten piedad de nosotros.

Cordero de Dios, que quitas el pecado del mundo, ten piedad de nosotros.

Cordero de Dios, que quitas el pecado del mundo, danos la paz.

In Spanish, the singular word for sin is “pecado”, while “pecados” is plural.

Of course, if you look at tne Italian version, things are different:

Agnello di Dio, che togli i peccati del mondo, abbi pietà di noi.

Here, peccati is plural. Peccato is singular.

Now, this is how Fr. McNamara from Zenit explains the sin/sins issue:

The Italian missal translates the expressions each time as sins, “i peccati,” whereas the Spanish conveys it as sin, “el pecado.”

The first translation is perhaps closer to the literal sense and, being more concrete, it tends to includes not only the sins but in some way also refers to the sinners.

The second translation might lay greater stress on the universal and even cosmological effects of redemption, in the sense that Christ’s death and resurrection has also restored a certain sense of order to creation itself. It could be said that all things are recapitulated in Christ, to use an expression of St. Paul (Ephesians 1:10) which was later theologically developed by St. Ireneus of Lyon.

Both translations, however, essentially express the same underlying reality. It may be that the English translators Solomonically divided their options. But it might also mean no more than that different people were responsible for different parts of the missal and never got together to iron out the creases.

The most important thing is that Christ, the Lamb of God who died and rose for us, is the source of all salvation and has the power to effectively take away our sins, and all sin from the world. This power is exercised above all through the sacraments, especially the re-enactment of his paschal sacrifice that is the holy Mass.

I hope this explanation helps.