Missing the Mark
The many faces of sin in Hebrew and Greek
The biblical vocabulary for sin is far richer than a single concept. The main Greek word hamartia means 'missing the mark'—but the Hebrew tradition layered on concepts of rebellion, crookedness, guilt, and debt. Each metaphor reveals a different dimension of what it means to fall short of God's purposes.
ἁμαρτία — Missing the Mark
a sin (properly abstract)
Also rendered: offence, sin
The Greek hamartia is the most common NT word for sin. In classical Greek it was an archery term: to miss the target. This is not a minor image—a marksman who consistently misses is useless. Hamartia suggests not just individual failures but a consistent misdirection, a habit of trajectory that falls short of its intended destination. In John's Gospel, hamartia is almost personified as a power that enslaves: 'whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin' (John 8:34).