|
Impiety is a lack of proper concern for the obligations owed to cult in
its proper sense. Impiety was a main pagan objection to Christianity, for
unlike other initiates into mystery religions, Christians refused
to cast a pinch of incense before the images of the gods, among whom were the protective deified Emperors. Impiety was a civic
concern, for it could bring down upon the whole res publica the
wrath of the tutelary gods who protected the polis.
Sin was an alien concept to the Greeks and Romans. When Aramaic had to be
translated into Greek in editing the New testament, the greek word
hamartia came to be used. Hamartia ("missing the mark") is only very approximately translated as "sin."
See also
This article is a stub. You can
help Wikipedia by expanding it .
|