Definition
Ἁμαρτία (Greek: ἁμαρτία) is the most frequent New Testament word for sin, with 88 occurrences across the Pauline corpus including Hebrews. Its literal meaning is “missing the mark” — failing to reach the standard God has set. It covers both individual sinful acts and the reigning power of sin from which humanity requires liberation (Rom. 6:14: “sin shall have no dominion over you”).
In 1 John 3:4 hamartia is equated with lawlessness (ἀνομία): “Everyone who commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.” This verse functions in the corpus as a hermeneutical key: sin is not merely moral failure but judicial transgression of an existing law.
Usage in the corpus
E.W. Bullinger
Bullinger analyses ἁμαρτία statistically and notes that the word occurs 63 times in Paul’s letters (excl. Heb.) and 25 times in Hebrews — together 88, or 8 × 11. For Bullinger this numerical fact carries theological significance: 11 signals disorder and deficiency, 8 signals new beginning and resurrection. Sin is the violation of divine order; the 8-factor points to the victory the new creation brings over sin. [Bullinger, Number in Scripture, Part I, Ch. II]
Stephen Jones
Jones reads hamartia juridically via 1 John 3:4: “Sin is lawlessness.” Sin is for him primarily a legal debt that must be paid. The law of Jubilee guarantees that debt will ultimately be discharged in full — not by abolishing the law but by paying its penalty completely: “The law destroys the sin, not the sinner.” [Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Ch. 1; Creation’s Jubilee, Ch. 7]
George Warnock
Warnock connects hamartia to the type of leaven (1 Cor. 5:6-8): “The penetrating and spreading characteristics of leaven make it to be a fitting type of malice and wickedness in a believer or in an assembly.” Sin spreads through the congregation like leaven — stagnation in spiritual growth is its breeding ground. [Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Ch. 3]
Cees Noordzij
Noordzij approaches hamartia as an anthropological condition: the domination of the soulish over the spiritual. Sin is not merely an act but an inner orientation: “In them the soulish prevails, seeking satisfaction for the flesh (Col. 2:23). The soul wants. It craves.” [Noordzij, Moses and the Way to Sonship, §20]