Word studies · Greek · Strong's G266
ἁμαρτία · hamartía · appears 174 times in the New Testament
In one line: Falling short of God's standard — missing the mark morally.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23
Sin is missing the mark — falling short of God's standard, whether through wrongdoing, rebellion, or failure to do what is right.
Hamartia names both individual wrong acts and, especially in Paul's letters, sin as a pervasive power that holds humanity in bondage apart from Christ. It's the fundamental problem Scripture says separates people from God and that Christ's death addresses.
Hamartia derives from a verb originally used in archery for missing a target. Greek writers extended it to any kind of failure or mistake before biblical usage sharpened it into the specific sense of moral and spiritual failure against God's standard.
The archery image behind hamartia is instructive: sin isn't only doing something actively evil, it's also failing to hit the mark of what God intends — which is why Scripture treats both wrongdoing and simply falling short under this one word.
Hamartia (G266) is also the term Aristotle used in his Poetics for a tragic hero's fatal flaw, the origin of the modern literary term “hamartia.”
Sin's universality and power — “the wages of sin is death” — set up the New Testament's central solution: Christ's death and resurrection deal decisively with sin's guilt and power, offering forgiveness and new life to those who trust Him.
Take sin seriously without despair — name specific ways you fall short honestly before God, trusting that confession leads to real forgiveness, not condemnation. Bring one area of ongoing struggle honestly to God today.
a sin (properly abstract)
She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.
Matthew 1:21John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Mark 1:4to give to His people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,
Luke 1:77The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
John 1:29Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:38What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin.
Romans 3:9Press and hold sin in any chapter and this study opens on the verse you are reading, with the lexicons, every occurrence and the commentaries beside it. The Bible is free to read.
Scripture quoted from the Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Strong's definitions are public domain. Counts come from The Pillar's own tagged text.