The New Testament

One of the most interesting examples of miracles, revealing in the framework of the New Testament the essence of sin, is that of healing of the blind from birth, described in the chapter 9 of the Gospel of John. This chapter is unique among the New Testament texts, not only by itself, but mostly by the detailed analysis and the precise definition of sin. Let’s quote two significant fragments:

And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing. (John 9, 1-7; our Italics)

First of all, the sin is a characteristic of a born being – “he, or his parents” – and is taken by disciples in the usual sense of the personal culpability, according to which the blindness is just a punishment. Jesus rejects the idea, acting to restore the eyesight to the man. The incident occasioned a bunch of attitudes of different social groups, according to their positions, both in the Nature and in the social hierarchy.

First, there is the reaction of those close to the blind man. These, normally, cannot understand: isn’t this the one begging? Something is not in order… in that order which, although unnatural is accepted, we should say, like axiomatically, as an assumption from which we start in any explanation, as a law!

Further the former blind man undergoes the judgment of the supreme court of the pharisees, of the ones who ratify the truth in society, in a crescendo culminating with the moment of the definition of the idea of sin:

Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth. (John 9, 35-41; our Italics)

The sin is, indeed, connected to the integrity of the senses of an individual – but this is not all. The lion has senses too, and it is just natural to kill an gazelle in order to live, but this is not a sin: because the lion “doesn’t see”, he just follows the call of nature. The arrogance of the devious self righteousness is that creating the sin, exactly as in the case of Adam and Eve: “ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth”. The lion is only lion, the wolf is just wolf, etc. they are part of the Nature; but the man cannot be man, he is too far away from Nature. However he has a great chance: he can be man only in God! This is the bottom-line message of the whole Bible, and we need to know it as a fact and to model our lives as such.

Nowhere is the arrogance of that totally unsecured “we see” more obvious than in science, insomuch as nowhere is its very existence, not only more unrecognized, but flatly denied. Is the technology – because, let’s face it, the science as it is practiced and understood today is mostly technology – is the technology giving us this right? Certainly not! Is this right contained implicitly in the fundamental concept of science – the force? Only if we use the force technologically, i.e. on its destructive side! However, the true moments of progress of science show clearly that this is not the right use of the concept of force, but that revealed in the first chapter of the Book of Creation, and endorsed by the New Testament: in Harmony!

The concept of sin is even more precise in one of the apocryphal texts, The Gospel of Mary Magdalene. We quote here from the translation of Karen L. King (The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle. Santa Rosa: Polebridge Press, 2003):

„… Will matter then be utterly destroyed or not?” The Savior replied, „Every nature, every modeled form, every creature, exists in and with each other. They will dissolve again into their own proper root. For the nature of matter is dissolved into what belongs to its nature. Anyone with two ears able to hear should listen!” Then Peter said to him, „You have been explaining every topic to us; tell us one other thing. What is the sin of the world?” The Savior replied, „There is no such thing as sin; rather you yourselves are what produces sin when you act in accordance with the nature of adultery, which is called „sin”. For this reason, the Good came among you, pursuing (the good) which belongs to every nature. It will set it within its root”. Then he continued. He said, „This is why you get sick and die: because you love what deceives you. Anyone who thinks should consider (these matters)!” (our Italics)

Nature knows of no sin, but the man, who, by science, can alienate the things natural, certainly possesses the sin!