What is sin (Hebrew: “Qat”)

Forms, shapes, movements, measurements It was understood by the ancient Israelite that the idiom, “nasa chatta’th”, was a feminine force by which the “shape” or “form of” guilt, shame, and/ or sin was carried away (vide TDOT, Botterwick & Ringgren; Jeff Benner, Ancient Hebrew Lexicon, pg. 121)

QAT was also referred to from the ancient Hebrew language as a two-fold idea:
(1) measuring cord to show the distance of the Archer’s missing the target and
(2) what it takes to make the bullseye.

The Hebrew language (especially that of the Tanakh [Old Testament in Hebrew]) offers us reconciliation in one word: Chatta’th. Chatta’th (the female help-meet for qat [masculine-”sin from its origin to its fruition/ teleos”]) was “the *carrying away* of the sphere or all encompassing form of guilt from the sinner and intercedes by taking away the consequence of death (Ex. 10:17; I Sam. 15:25).

In the passages above we do not read of direct blame upon the individual.
Rather, both by scapegoat and the grand Intention for intervention and “taking away” guilt does one understand Qat.

If this is the case, then where is “judgment” upon our human actions (namely
sin)? If the causal agent to sin (qat) is outside the sphere of our first act of sinning (due to grand Intent) how can we be blamed? For sure, “we” share in this qat or sin— for we indeed sin in this time, space, orientation.

An answer that will arise out of true sin

If that which drives the motions of sin precedes both our sin and salvation (as an
outside entity acting upon us “unto” reconciliation) then what becomes of the narrative of our repentance, choice, love, etc.? For we have all created a “narrative” as to how we participate in this life in time in space. However, it is carnal and therefore myopic or “short-sighted”.

If it is true that we were known by God and loved by him before the foundation of the world (Romans 8:28-31) then we were complete in him and without sin in his holy bosom (otherwise, we could not exist in his holy presence). We were outside chronos-time and measured-space which presently constrains us to its rules. All such a condition defines our state of being as the opposite of being “free-from”
any action in time and space, hence, we are “bound to” the limitations of the transient world. Hence, sin and transience is “free from” the holy and “has its freedom” within the sphere of qat, i.e., a “leading to” God but bound to a “movement unto death” without human concession.

An answer that will arise out of true love

We share in the eternal form of salvation. We would have/ do/ and will (in eternal language) share in the immovable form of eternal love with God as well as the shackles of Chronos and his wife, *Anxiety-Desire (Ananke)*.

Inside the “love of eternity”— all is set within its immovable form which is beyond the scope for our language if we attempt to “hold form” for the English idea of “choice”. There is an eternal “choice ” to love which is the only choice making “choice” holy. For what other “choice” would you “choose1” in eternity with God
but to Love? How then is holy love “chosen” here on earth? If we act upon the reflection of eternity, there can be only one answer: we do not have the fleshly choice to choose anything, but that which has already been chosen for us by God. Thank God! Such an eternal-intransient love form can only exist because
it truly is eternally holy.

1 To “act” eternally is to already be bound to eternal limitations that God has placed for our “freedom to be
holy and eternally sustainable”. That is, there can be no sin in eternity by which the flesh could act
“freely”. Only identity as reflexive in the infinite bounds of love can we enjoy limitless love, limitless
“choice” in that which is sustainable and outside the transient.

For that which is of this world is transient and not sustainable in eternity. True love cannot exist as transient. It must be called something else other than true
love. For all of the lies that we have told ourselves and others, for all of the covetousness, for all of the lust, for all of the anger, for all of the rage, for all of the greed, for all of the pride of life, and the desire to have power, – all such things will cease under the glory of God’s eternal kingdom that will not have
anything transient in his presence.

When we are face-to-face with God, we will not want what we have prized so greatly. Moreover, we will be most thankful to have known that our sin and our forgiveness was put upon us by God into this lifetime in order to filter out our transient nature.

Concluding idea:

“Outside of” the qat we would only have love from the perspective of the eternal. For it is qat that signifies not just a one time sin, but all of our sin. If this is the case then qat is consistently working to blanket us onto recognition that we are
out of control. That is, “we don’t know what hit us when we sin. The mechanism of sin is explained in the scripture as it comes from us that is, our nature. And when it brings forth its fruit it brings death. Therefore, our nature must die. Our new nature must be identified solely in the nature of Christ. But this cannot be
chosen. This new nature must be brought upon us just as Qat is/ was/ will (until sin is no more).

To love in this life means to do something that is “eternally sustainable”. That thing is something that we cannot do in and of our natures. Therefore, we are as
a bride that is joined eternally to her husband (God) while tethered to that which is inside the boundaries of time’s death (en horos).

We act upon the kingdom of eternal holiness as God’s bride while we walk in the kingdom of the prince of the power of the air – i.e., kosmokrator (earthly/ temporary ruler of the ordered arrangement unto destruction).

The love that we display here on earth is the signal of our salvation already established from eternity. We love and “do good” only because we are tethered to the intransient sustainable God. All “outside actions” are of God and are his
fated, destined, ordained movements unto destruction which are only the tools
used to shape us in this life unto perfection for his glorious witness. We are “the
coming to be” in him seen by the world. It is wholly unnatural and thank God for
that.

Further references for ChaT/ HhaT/Qat:

Jeff Benner, Ancient Hebrew Lexicon, pg. 121

“A cord used to measure the distance of the ‘miss’ and the same cord used to reference the rectification by which the Archer must make the bullseye”

Strong’s 2408

Forward to Book ‘Does Grace Have a Ceiling’

This work is a “sifter” of sorts using what I call “The 5 Noble Truths”. Some people might wince when the word “truth” is used, however, I use the mother meaning of the word “truth” found couched in classical Greek, Hittite, Sanskrit,  and the early reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language. I did this in order to elicit a time capsule of rich meaning supporting the word, “truth”, showing its linguistic gold as it tethers to our bank of current words. For “truth” was bigger than a “relative” transient meaning. It was interconnected with a series of other ideas that completed a broad matrix of meaning. 

The meaning of “truth”, from its earliest P.I.E. inception, was: *dr- “tree”, as in “root, stem, and branches”. Compare “truth”/”daru”/”dr-”  with “druid”: (daru [“tree”, “truth”] + “eid [“wit”, “vision”, “witch”, “videre”, “video”, “to see”])”, i.e., “tree seers”/ “wise ones”/ “seers within the trees”/ “steadfast ones”, etc. {Shipley, Shippey, Watkins})[1].

Such a term was not lightly thrown around for millennia. Just as a test, take the “true” meaning of “true” and apply it to anything you want to find out. Simple things like where you put your keys that you lost. You mentally track your steps back to the last time you had your keys and follow the sequence of your activities. Possibly asking others that were around you as witnesses to your day’s journey to help as to when they last saw you with your keys. Finding your keys uses solid realities to find your real keys.

Circa 4,000 years after the Proto-Indo-Europeans gave us a “zero-grade (linguistic inception)” meaning for truth (*dr-/ daru) we read the following as an example of an a-moral sense for the word, “truth”: Pontius pilot asked Jesus (John 18:38) the question, “what is the truth (“ti ‘estin ‘alay’theia [‘alay’theia: “objectve facts” and not “illusion”])”? Jesus did not reply for Jesus is the cause of the “truth”: root, stem, and branches of created objective reality.  Furthermore, Jesus calls himself the Alpha and Omega [Revelation 1:8, 1:11, 21:6, 22:13]) qualifying Jesus as the objective ”truth” living-breathing among us. Therefore, the gospels, being qualified by Jesus, do qualify what “truth” is. Note: “daru” or “dr-” and “ ‘alay‘theia” are not the same words but hold the same meaning. The “truth” still exists within the words.

The ones that could see the “truth” in the deeper sense were those who traveled with Jesus and witnessed all that Jesus the Messiah would fulfill. This meant, the “disciples (Greek: mathetikon-”mathemeticians”; “accounters”)”  “took account” of Jesus’ words, deeds, fulfillments, universal truths, parables, etc. Therefore, how could there have been a correct reply from truth itself when Jesus is the truth standing before you? For Jesus is the beginning and end, the Alpha and Omega – which also fulfills the word, “telos”. 

Another term that needs to be addressed in our world of illusory “free agency” is the aged idea of “free will”.

Free will as it should be known:

Probability within modern psychiatry aids us from subjective to objective data driven classification into a type of clarity. Such factoring gives an epidemiological approach which shows us that Axis I (mania) and Axis II (hypomania) Bipolar (as is listed in the DSM-TR-5), schizophrenia, etc., are what I call “states of ‘free agency’ ” in that (if untreated) they will exist “freely” from the “neurotypical” standard.  I also state that a person who is diagnosed within the gamut of “dysregulation” is medically assigned to that “free from” neurotypical state of existence. Currently, a goal for such a person by the medical provider, and patient’s surrounding community, is the aim for the “neurotypical” standard. 

As we have advanced in the neurological sciences we are finding profound “events” that occur “upon” the will of the neurotypical and the dysregulated. Dr. Sam Harris, a neuro-scientist, offers a very brief but intense treatment concerning the study of our very being (ontology) in his book, “There is no Free Will”. To further this, Dr. Harris, a professed atheist-naturalist, attributes natural causes upon the human will making the human being incapable of having “free will”. Dr. Harris attributes genetic, random quantum fluctuations, the micro-biome relation (i.e., the gut-brain axis), parasitic influences –  making us act less fearful, etc. Dr. Harris proposes such “outside causes” acting upon us remain outside our control. Therefore, Dr. Harris concludes we have no “free will.”

So, if it is “true” that our human condition, whether “neurotypical” or socially aberrant due to “dysregulation”, is acted upon by preceding causes then what is “free will” from the current theological and scientific perspective? Where is the condemnation or merit to be found? Whether “sinner” or “saint”, one will “act out” from their state or condition. If we can prove theologically and scientifically that neither “rogue agency” nor “free agency” is a force derived from the individual then who or what is left to be “put to the merit or blame”? If it is “merit”, then the only direction to look to is to look backwards for it was something else that was driving you to act. If blame, you would still need to look back and do the same. In either case, if natural-fated-causation is the current adequate argument for the outcome for anything, then we can most definitely eliminate “accountability”. That is, the elimination of the “kind of” accountability that holds judgment upon the object of receiving such merit or blame.

But what if there is an entire new/ old way to look at causation within a “forgiveness paradigm”? Again, holding to a temporary suspension of disbelief (if one is an atheist) one could “imagine” heaven with God eternally existing where there is no blame. Reasonably, this idea could become a wonderful reality enacted by us all in the primary-corporeal world if it wasn’t for our “free wills” to sin against each other for that is what the world does. Therefore, “free will”, is hypothetically not of God if so defined as “free agency” and therefore a “third party” to “choose God” which is not biblically sound.

Sin: can sin be a-moral in the telos meaning?

Linguistically, the word “sin” holds quite a different angle than what we might think of in the old European and Hittite world. The Proto Indo European gives us *snt-ya- and its root, *es-ont- mean: “a becoming to be”; “a truth”, “a root-to stem-to branches” observation, etc. while the Hittite, “ess”, gives us a “formula of confession” as follows: “it is being”, “it exists”, “it is existing”, etc.

To “sin” is to show the “truth” via the etiology and ontology of the one who trespasses.  This would, to its furthest extent, show the “reasons”, the “why”, the “etiology” for one’s sin. Would we not understand the “truth” of their “sin” in this fashion? Would we hold judgment to those for whom we understood why their sin “came to be” – the cause of their being, the theological “teleology” of one’s being?

Furthermore, to see the “becoming” of someone, knowing they are being caused to become, would we hold blame upon the cause or causal agent of the one “coming to be”? To conclude this thought: “sin” must be understood as being aligned with “truth” as “truth” is to be known.

To blame your fellow human for being a transgressor of the law is much like blaming a barking dog for its barking. It is in its nature to bark, therefore, a dog is not “free from” its state of being a dog. A dog could be said to be guilty of “doggery” in the same breath that a human can be said to act “all too human”. I am not shocked in either case, dog or human.

In the philosophical teleological view, it is the mere explanation of phenomena in terms of the purpose in which they serve rather than the cause by which they arise. This method annuls a theological/God causality opening in which a temporary suspension of disbelief for the non-believer cannot be employed. This faith in “anti-faith” adopted by certain atheists of all walks of life holds no more substance of a grounded argument than does a religious radical laden with faulty beliefs threatening to blow up a building in the name of their god does. This is an unfair approach, for all novice to seasoned scientists have been allowed their beliefs in their field to allow ideas of the “what ifs” and the “thens” and the “therefores”, etc. Why fear to “act” in belief or disbelief if the thing that is being tried (Aristotle’s “telos”) does not yield results as you “wished”? Worse yet, one would be showing a poor ethic of practicing good science and/ or theology, due to the thing observed showing its “trueness”? Should I ask: “why fear the things claimed to be spoken by God on earth if one is to use the “scientific, linguistic, anthropological, and sociological approach” to disprove God or prove his existence? This work more than adequately shows the possibility of the conjunction of these sciences/ -ologies to “prove” a consistent “God narrative”.

It is here that I refer back to one of my favorite dialogues of Plato called “Cratylus”.

Hermogenes’ and Socrates’ daimon (Greek: “spirit”)  employed by Plato for use in Plato’s dialogue which shows that “sin” isn’t necessarily “immoral”. It does not, however, disprove that “sin” is not immoral when its context is within a critique requiring “sin” as the source of a fault. What I have found is the uncanny beautiful horror that it is never found to be objective.

Right, Good, Evil, Sin

[420.B/ Loeb classic; Cratylus] Socrates: “Doxsa (glory, rightful, worthy) is derived either from the pursuit (dioxsis) which the soul carries on as it pursues the knowledge of the nature of the thing, or from the shooting of the bow (toxson); the latter is more likely; at any rate “oiesis (belief)” supports this view, for it appears to mean the motion (oisis) of the soul towards the essential nature of every individual thing, just as intention (boule) denotes shooting (bole) and wish (boulesthai) as well as plan (bouleuesthai), denotes aiming at something. All these words seem to follow doxsa and to express the idea of shooting, just as ill-advisedness (aboulia), on the other hand, appears to be a failure to hit, as if a person did not shoot or hit that which he shot at or wished or planned or desired.

The Greek in the classical and New Testament holds sin as “ ‘armateia (“without portion”)”: “a” = “not” + “meros” = “portion”. It is here that we find Plato’s “sin” – “aboulia” to match that of the Greek New Testament’s ‘armateia and the Semitic (both secular and religious) “qat”.

For, ‘armateia etymologically conveys loss, forfeiture, no part of, due to not hitting the target; missing the mark, etc. “Sin”, as I previously stated, in secular Semitic and religious sources, finds itself in the Old Testament Hebrew, giving us the root “CH-T-’ (qat) indicating “a verb of motion” that is “in the missing of the correct point”.

Such a verb of motion as “qat” can be denoted in Psalms 19:2: “he that hasteth with his feet goeth astray (ats berag’liym qot’).” The rushing, speeding, hurrying, making haste, etc. is the root to “going astray” and is in one motion. Qat is very interesting, indeed for it seems to follow an idea of “fate” as known to the ancient Greeks, though fate’s conclusion is quite different in that it leads to “fatality” whereas qat leads to a lesson learned unto life eternal. Qat, to the ancient Semitic mind, held “a sphere of motion as an ‘outside agent’ prior to human action acting upon the objective individual causing both the nature of evil and the fruit of evil, i.e., the root is the “Qat”, the stem is the recipient, and the sinful acts are the branches. Furthermore, this combined series of motions of “truth” require a “reconciliation” as in “atonement” which is connected with the feminine form of the masculine qat. Therefore, the beginning of qat requires the end–much like Plato’s “eternal shapes”.  The idiom, “nasa chatta’th” is the verb with the feminine object and always means “the carrying away of the sphere of guilt from the sinner by a third party who intercedes vicariously taking away the consequence of death (Ex. 10:17; I Sam. 15:25). 

In all cases above we still haven’t found objective direct blame upon the individual by which we should rank as either right or wrong. So, where is the “judgment” if the causal agency is outside the sphere of our first act?

Through the sifting of my 5 Noble Truths (5NTs) I attempt to dispel unnecessary “moralizations” of words and ideas that can cause dissension within my target audience. Such a method, as you will see in this work, will allow “morality” to ring true as it should.

[1] Might I add, there seems to be an echo of the witch-shaman of the druids which resembles the Satan figure by the tree of knowing good “and” evil. This chapter would be the narrative of the inception in real time of judgment – i.e., dualism and all of its pitfalls, upon all humankind found here in Genesis 3.