Seven Deadly Sins: The History And The Essence Of Each Sin

Introduction

There are seven things God does not like. According to Proverbs 6:16-19, “There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers”. These seven detestable sins are called the seven deadly sins, and here is the history behind them.

History

Human beings have always been wicked, immoral, and lazy. For a long time, humans have struggled to find a system to operationalize their religious shortcomings, and it was difficult. The system had to be general and involved enough to include a big number of immoral behaviors, but it also had to be strong and scary enough to invoke fear into religious people. Before his death in 399 AD, the Greek monk, ascetic, and theologist, Evagrius Ponticus drafted a list of 8 wicked and sinful human passions. He wrote these 8 passions, in order of increasing seriousness. It starts off with gluttony, then lust, avarice (greed), sadness, anger, acedia (spiritual or mental sloth), vainglory (excessive vanity), and pride. As previously stated, Evagrius Ponticus wrote the 8 passions, in order of seriousness. What that means is, as the list increases, the passions become severe and fixed with the self. During the late 6th century, Pope Gregory the Great readjusted the list. He edited the list to make it seven instead of eight, by combining vainglory into pride, binding acedia into sadness, and adding envy to the list. Pope Gregory ranked his list different from Evagrius Ponticus. His ranking of the Sins’ based on how much they offended against love. The list, from serious to least, starts with: pride, envy, anger, sadness, avarice (or covetousness), gluttony, and lust. Later on, other theologians like St. Thomas Aquinas, disagreed on Pope Gregory’s list, stating the sins’ seriousness could not be ranked on the accord of love. In Dante’s “The Divine Comedy”, he ranks the seven from least to most dangerous sins. It begins with lust, then gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. These seven sins are the definitive ones still used today.

Lust

Lust is one of the seven deadly sins. It refers to an intense desire, an intense desire for sexual gratification, but it can also refer to as a lust for power. For the purpose of it being a sin, the definition is based on an intense desire for sexual gratification. Lust is the root of adultery, cuckoldry, unfaithfulness, and sexual addiction (untamed pursuit of sexual gratification). It is commonly the evil-destructive cause of split relationships, split marriages, broken marriages, and broken family life. Lust is a sin because it causes a deep, destructive, and devastating emotional consequences.

Gluttony

Gluttony is included in all list of the seven deadly sins. It is the desire for sensorial fulfillment, which could mean an excess of foods or drinks. Gluttony, in both the Old and New Testaments, is viewed as dangerous. The Book of Proverbs strongly disdains Gluttony. It states, “When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive. Do not wear yourself out to get rich (Prov. 23:1-4)”. Thomas Aquinas had a different view of gluttony. He argued that the sin could also include an obsessive anticipation of meals, and a constant fixation on eating expensive foods and delicacies.

Greed

Greed, just like gluttony is grounded in an excessive self-centered desire. Where gluttony comes from an excessive desire for sensational fulfillment, greed is the excessive desire for material properties and wealth. Thomas Aquinas said, ‘Greed is a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much as man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things.’ Although greed does not cause a physical addiction, it causes a physiological one. A greedy person will do everything it takes, cheating, stealing, defrauding, exploiting anything and anyone to have material goods. Greed is connected with the ego, and it’s desire to have better or more things than others.

Sloth

Sloth (or acedia) has a general definition of laziness, a hatred towards effort. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, sloth means spiritual apathy — a total lack of concern for self, others, community, and society. It can be seen as the most serious of the deadly sin, as it reflects a complete disdain towards care, love, participation, and faith. Sloth stands as the root of not only underlining life but wasting it, along with any talents one might possess. Wasting talents and the potential to develop them to stops making any real difference in the world. The sin reflects the absence of a healthy passion, coming from ideals, principles, empathy, and conscience. It can become so intense that one might not care, that he or she are being lazy. He or she who does nothing with their talents might become like the individual from Jesus’ Parable of the Talents’.

That individual did nothing with his talent, so he buried it in the ground. In response to that. You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sowed, and gather where I have not winnowed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness; their men will weep and gnash their teeth’ (Mt. 25: 26-30).

Wrath

Wrath means rage, madness, vengeance. People with wrath have uncontrollable feelings of extreme hatred and anger. In its rawest form, wrath is seen to bring violence and hate to the world. It can persist for a long period of time, even after getting solace. Feelings of wrath can be displayed in different ways, such as impatience, anger, and self-destructive behaviors, such as bodily harm or drug abuse. It also included anger and hatred directed internally, as well. This lead to suicide, which expresses that hatred by ending the life of the self. Dante’s description of wrath is “love of justice perverted to revenge and spite”.

Envy

Envy, like greed and lust, can be seen as an unquenchable desire. Jealousy and envy get intertwined a lot. They both feel discontent towards what someone else has, either it is traits, abilities, wealth, or status. The difference is people with envy heavily desires and wants it. Dante defines envy as “a desire to deprive other men of theirs”, in which that is a very well written definition. Furthermore, Dante gives a punishment for envious people which is to have their eyes sewn shut. The Ten Commandments goes against Envy by saying, “Neither shall you desire… anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Pride

Pride or hubris (Greek) is considered the biggest sin of them all. It is the sin of all sins. This sin transformed Lucifer, once an anointed cherub of God, into Satan, the devil, the man of lies and Hell. Lucifer’s pride is what caused him to fall from Heaven, and transform into an evil reincarnate. Pride is defined as believing that one is better than others. Furthermore, a person with too much pride fails to acknowledge the accomplishments of others (great or small), and admires themself too much; especially, when one puts themself over God. Dante’s definition of Pride was ‘love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one’s neighbor’.