The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2278 page)

Simony
.

From the action of
Simon Magus
in Acts 8. 18–24, the purchase or sale of spiritual things, and specifically of an ecclesiastical benefice or preferment.

 
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Judaism
In the Hebrew scriptures there are three main categories of sin.
et
indicates a failure of mutual relations,
Pesha
indicates a breach in the relationship between two parties. The verb
awah
(
avah
) expresses the notion of crookedness. The
rabbis
used the term
averah
(passing over), so sin is a passing over or rejection of the will of God. The primary cause of sin is the
evil
inclination. See also
SACRIFICE
;
TESHUVA
;
FORGIVENESS
.
Christianity
In the New Testament there are distinctive treatments of sin in

(i) Paul, for whom sin is a ruling power in the world (Romans 5. 12; Galatians 3. 22) and in people (Romans 6. 6, 7. 14–20);
(ii) the Johannine writings, where ‘sin’ is the opposite of ‘truth’ and is related to disbelief in
Christ
(John 9. 41, 15. 24); and
(iii) 
Hebrews
, where it is a disorder atoned for by sacrifices (2. 17, 5. 1). Otherwise the word and its cognates are used without great precision, particularly in expounding the saving work of Christ.

Of later elaborations of the understanding of sin, the most important is probably the concept of
original sin
. Also important was the development of the penitential system. Social sin has been increasingly recognized as amounting to far more than the sum of individual sins and sinners, as e.g. in
Liberation Theology
. See also
SEVEN DEADLY SINS
.
Islam
There are more than ninety words in the
Qur’
n
for sin or offence against God or one's fellow human beings; it is therefore impossible to summarize the many nuances of sin in Islam. But from that fact alone, it is obvious that the mission of
Mu
ammad
was addressed to humans who are in grave danger because of their propensity to sin. There is no trace of an ab-original fault which affects all subsequent humans. Nevertheless, there are many ways in which humans fall into sin or error, and the Qur’
n offers guidance so that there can be no doubt what behaviour God requires. The Day of Judgement (
yaum al-Din
) is decided on an exact balance between good and evil acts—though evaluation takes account of
niy(y)a
(intention). But God is merciful and compassionate, and the way of repentance (
tawbah
) is always open. Even so, there were those in early Islam who held that a Muslim who sins has become an apostate and therefore no longer belongs to the community (see
KHARIJITES
).
Hinduism
As in other E. religions, the most radical fault which has to be overcome is not so much sin as ignorance (
avidy
). Nevertheless, it is perfectly well recognized that there are behaviours (and thoughts) which are wrong and which might well be called sin, for which the most usual word is
p
pa
. The foremost of these (p
p
tama) is
moha
. Closely associated are
lobha
and
krodha
(anger). The classic texts of
dharma
astra
develop an elaborate casuistry, dividing sins into
mah
p
takas