Avon / Iniquity
What does iniquity even mean? This word is all over the Bible, so let’s take a closer look at this biblical “bad” word.
Script
Introduction [00:00-00:40]
Most people assume the Bible has a lot to say about how messed up humans are, and that’s true. It’s also true that the Bible’s vocabulary about this topic sounds odd to modern people, using words like sin, iniquity, or transgression. And so the Bible’s perspective on the human condition is often ignored or treated as ancient and backwards.
This is really unfortunate because through these words, the biblical authors are offering us a deeply profound diagnosis of human nature. Sin refers to moral failure, and transgression describes how we break trust”with others. And iniquity? No one even uses that word anymore. So what’s it all about?
The Hebrew Word Avon [00:41-03:52]
In Bible translations, iniquity is one way the Hebrew word avon gets translated. It’s also rendered with words like wickedness, guilt, or sin. So what does avon actually mean?
The word avon is related to a Hebrew verb avah, which means “to be bent” or “crooked.” The poet of Psalm 36 says his back is avah’d, that is, “bent over” in pain.1 Or in Lamentations chapter 3, a road that isn’t straight is one that avah’s, that is, it’s twisty and crooked.2
Now this image of being crooked offered biblical poets a powerful metaphor to talk about people’s behavior, like Jeremiah, who said Israel has “avah’d their way” by violating their covenant with God and giving allegiance to idols.3 Or in the book of Job, a person who morally fails is someone who avah’s what is right.4 In both cases, something that’s supposed to be level or even, your choices or your conscience, has been bent out of shape, distorted.
In the Bible, avon refers to all kinds of crooked behavior––ten commandments kind of stuff, lying, murder, adultery. In Isaiah chapter 59, avon describes the corruption among Israel’s leaders who were ignoring the injustice done to the poor. The prophet cleverly adapts the metaphor, saying, “We have so much avon,” that is, crookedness, “that uprightness can’t even enter our city.” Things were so morally distorted in Jerusalem that crooked was the new straight.
Another fascinating thing about the word avon is that it refers not only to distorted behavior but also to the crooked consequences––the hurt people, the broken relationships, the cycles of retaliation. You find this idea in the biblical phrase “to punish,” which in biblical Hebrew is to “visit someone’s avon upon them,” that is, to let them sit in the consequences of their crooked choices. This is what the prophet Jeremiah said about Babylonians who were destroying other nations5. One day those nations would destroy them in return. And so Babylon’s divine punishment would be having to live in a disfigured world of its own making.
This is actually the main way biblical authors talk about God’s response to human avon––letting people experience the crooked consequences of their choices. This is the meaning of the common biblical phrase “to bear your iniquity,” or in Hebrew, “to carry your avon.” God gives people the dignity of carrying the consequences of their bad decisions.
But that’s not the only way God responds to avon in the Bible. He also offers to carry the avon of corrupt people as an act of sheer generosity. In fact, “carrying avon” is the most common Hebrew phrase for God’s forgiveness, like Psalm 32 where the poet says, “I did not hide my avon, but confessed it… and you carried the avon of my sin.” [Psalm 32:5] This is actually shocking if you stop and think about it. God forgives people by taking responsibility for their avon.
This idea reaches its high point in the book of Isaiah, where God appoints a figure called “the servant.” He will embody God’s forgiving love by “carrying the avon of many” and allowing it to crush him. This servant will absorb humanity’s crookedness, letting it overwhelm and destroy him. But that’s not the end of the story. The servant will emerge out the other side of death, alive and well, so he can offer his life to others. [Isaiah 53:11-12]
The Greek Word Anomia [03:53-04:16]
When you get to the New Testament, the apostles carry these ideas forward, using the Greek word anomia, which has a similar meaning. Like Paul the apostle, he identifies the servant as Jesus, and he said, “Our great God and savior, Jesus the Messiah, gave his life on our behalf, in order to redeem us from all of our anomia,” our crooked behavior and its consequences.
Conclusion [04:17-04:41]
And so the whole biblical story is about God’s desire to take crooked people and the twisted world that we’ve created and to make everything right. Through Jesus, God invites us to become whole humans once again, people who can walk upright with God and with each other.
And that’s the story behind the biblical words for iniquity.
