παράπτωμα

Two Lutheran families are at the same Christmas Eve service in a community that doesn’t usually mix them. The Smiths are AFLC. The Joneses are LCMS. The service includes the Lord’s Prayer. The Smiths say “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” The Joneses say the same thing. So far, so good.

The next week the Smiths visit relatives at a Presbyterian church. The service includes the Lord’s Prayer. The relatives say “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” The Smiths’ children look up from the pew, confused. Who’s right? Are some Christians using the wrong words? Has the Smith family been praying it wrong, or are the Presbyterians?

The answer is in the Greek, and it’s more interesting than either side of the debate usually realizes.

When Jesus teaches the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6, He uses one word for “what we owe God.” But when He immediately follows the prayer with His own commentary in verses 14-15, He uses a different word for the same idea. The petition in verse 12 uses ὀφειλήματα (opheilēmata) — debts. The commentary in verses 14-15 uses παραπτώματα (paraptōmata) — trespasses. Same passage. Same prayer. Two Greek words.

The English Bible has to pick one or the other for the petition. Different translation traditions picked differently. The King James (and many earlier English versions) followed the commentary verb and rendered the petition “trespasses.” The American Revised Version (and most modern translations) followed the petition verb and rendered it “debts.” Both renderings are biblical, because both Greek words appear in the same passage referring to the same reality.

This chapter is about the second of those Greek words: paraptōma, the New Testament’s vocabulary for the specific false step, the particular stumbling, the individual instance of falling off God’s path.

The Word

The Greek word is παράπτωμα (paraptōma), pronounced in the Erasmian convention as pa-RAP-tō-ma, with the accent on the second syllable. The word is a third-declension neuter noun and appears in all standard inflected forms in the New Testament: nominative singular paraptōma, genitive paraptōmatos, dative paraptōmati, accusative paraptōma; plural paraptōmata, paraptōmatōn, paraptōmasi(n).

The etymology is transparent in the Greek and theologically suggestive. Paraptōma is a compound built from the preposition para- and the verb piptō (to fall), with the -ma suffix that produces result-nouns. The preposition para- carries a range of senses: alongside, beside, past, contrary to, deviating from. The verb piptō is the standard Greek verb for falling — a body falling to the ground, a leaf falling from a tree, a person falling from a height. Combined with para-, the resulting verb parapiptō means “to fall beside” or “to fall away” or “to fall off the path.”

So paraptōma, the result-noun, captures the image of a misstep. A person is walking the path God has marked out; the person’s foot goes wrong; the person falls beside the path or stumbles off it. Paraptōma names that fall — not catastrophic ruin (the person is not destroyed) but a specific instance of going wrong, a particular stumbling, a false step that requires correction.

The word family is closely linked to the Greek verb for falling:

Piptō (πίπτω) — to fall. The base verb. Used throughout the New Testament for literal and metaphorical falling. Matthew 7:25, 27 — the house that fell because it was built on sand. Luke 10:18 — Satan falling from heaven. Romans 11:11 — “did they stumble in order that they might fall?”

Parapiptō (παραπίπτω) — the compound verb that produces paraptōma. Used at Hebrews 6:6 — those who “have fallen away” (parapesontas). The verb form is rare in the New Testament; the noun is much more common.

Ptōma (πτῶμα) — a fall, but also a fallen body, a corpse. Used at Matthew 24:28 (“wherever the corpse is, there the eagles will gather”) and Mark 15:45 (Joseph of Arimathea asking for Jesus’s body). The noun stresses the result of falling — the body now lying on the ground.

Ekpiptō (ἐκπίπτω) — to fall out, to fall from. Used at Galatians 5:4 — those who would be justified by the law “have fallen away from grace.”

Katapiptō (καταπίπτω) — to fall down. Used at Acts 26:14 — Paul recounting his Damascus road experience: “we had all fallen to the ground.”

The whole family carries the image of falling — physical, spatial, or metaphorical. Paraptōma fits within this family by adding the para- dimension: not just falling, but falling off — deviating from the path that should have been followed.

The English word “trespass” preserves something of this spatial imagery. The English comes through Old French trespasser (to pass across or over), from Latin trans (across) + passare (to pass). The original English sense was a crossing over of boundaries — a physical or legal violation of someone else’s property. The theological use extended this: to trespass against God or against a neighbor is to violate the boundary that God has set.

The English word “transgression” carries similar baggage. From Latin trans (across) + gradi (to step), a transgression is literally a stepping-across. The Greek New Testament has a related word, parabasis (παράβασις), built from para- + bainō (to step). Parabasis and paraptōma are close kin: both name boundary-crossing or path-leaving violations, with parabasis emphasizing the active crossing and paraptōma emphasizing the falling step. Romans 5:14 uses parabasis (Adam’s transgression) and Romans 5:15 uses paraptōma (Adam’s trespass) within two verses for the same primal disobedience.

The Septuagint background is moderately developed. Paraptōma in the LXX typically translates Hebrew ma’al (מַעַל) — treachery, unfaithfulness, the breaking of trust. The Hebrew ma’al carries strong covenantal weight: it names the unfaithfulness of a covenant partner, the violation of relational trust. Ezekiel uses ma’al repeatedly for Israel’s covenant unfaithfulness; the LXX often renders it paraptōma. The Greek word inherits the covenant-violation dimension from the Hebrew background.

A few Old Testament passages show the connection:

Ezekiel 14:13 — “If a land sins against me by acting faithlessly (ma’al / paraptōma), and I stretch out my hand against it…” The covenant unfaithfulness of a nation is named paraptōma in the LXX.

Daniel 9:7-8 — “To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you… because of our treachery (paraptōma) that we have committed against you.” Daniel’s penitential prayer uses paraptōma for Israel’s covenant violations.

Psalm 19:12 (LXX 18:13) — “Who can discern his errors (paraptōmata)? Declare me innocent from hidden faults.” The penitential awareness of unseen paraptōmata — false steps the person himself may not have noticed.

Range of Meaning

Paraptōma in the New Testament covers a meaningful range:

A false step, a specific stumbling. The base sense. An individual instance of going wrong, a particular deviation from the path. Galatians 6:1 — “if anyone is caught in any paraptōma…” Here paraptōma names a specific incident of going wrong, the kind of fall a brother might be caught in.

A trespass against God’s commands. The most common sense. A specific violation of God’s law, a particular instance of disobedience. Matthew 6:14-15, Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 2:13 — all use paraptōma (or its plural) for specific violations the believer needs forgiven.

An offense against another person. The horizontal dimension. Matthew 6:14-15 names paraptōmata both as what we have committed against God and as what others have committed against us. The believer is to forgive what others have paraptōma-ed against him.

Adam’s primal disobedience. The theological loaded sense. Romans 5:15-20 uses paraptōma repeatedly for Adam’s act of disobedience in the garden — the one trespass through which condemnation came to all. The same word covers a child’s lie and Adam’s eating of the fruit; the New Testament uses the term across a range of severity because the underlying reality is the same.

The state of being dead in trespasses. The Pauline sense. Ephesians 2:1, 5; Colossians 2:13. Paraptōmata in these passages names not just specific acts but the condition produced by them — the death that the accumulated trespasses produce in the unregenerate person.

The first four uses are dominant. The fifth (the state-of-being-dead use) is a Pauline development that builds on the act-sense by treating the cumulative effect of trespasses as a state of spiritual death.

Where You’ll Meet It

Romans 5:15-20. The most concentrated paraptōma passage in the New Testament. The Greek uses the word repeatedly — six times in six verses — in the great Adam-Christ comparison:

“But the free gift is not like the trespass (paraptōma). For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”

The passage is dense, and a chapter could be written on it alone. The structural argument is the parallel between two single acts: Adam’s paraptōma (one trespass), which brought condemnation and death to all humanity, and Christ’s dikaiōma (one act of righteousness), which brings justification and life to all who believe.

Paul’s logic depends on two affirmations. First, Adam’s paraptōma was a single historical act with universal consequences — the one trespass that brought the many to condemnation. Second, Christ’s act of righteousness (His obedient life and substitutionary death) was a single historical act with universal effect — the one act of righteousness that brings the many to justification. The parallel collapses if either side becomes a generic principle rather than a specific historical event.

This is the New Testament’s foundational text for the doctrine of original sin and the corresponding doctrine of imputed righteousness. Adam’s paraptōma was imputed to humanity in the sense that the consequences (death, condemnation, the corrupted nature) flowed from his act to all his descendants. Christ’s righteousness is imputed to the believer in the sense that the benefits (justification, life, the new nature) flow from His act to all who receive Him by faith. The paraptōma vocabulary is at the center of this argument.

Ephesians 2:1-5. “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world… But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved.” The Greek: kai hymas ontas nekrous tois paraptōmasin kai tais hamartiais hymōn.

The passage was treated in Chapter 10 of this volume (on thanatos) for the death-language. Here it deserves attention for the paraptōma language. The unregenerate person is dead “in trespasses and sins” — paraptōmata and hamartiai together. The two terms are not mere synonyms; Paul uses them in apposition to give the fuller picture. The trespasses are the specific false steps; the sins are the deeper missing-the-mark. Together they characterize the condition in which the unregenerate person walks.

The verse is also one of the foundational New Testament texts for the doctrine of regeneration. The person dead in paraptōmata does not contribute to his own raising. God, “rich in mercy,” makes him alive together with Christ. The action is monergistic — God’s alone. The recipient is passive. The result is new life produced from spiritual death. The pattern recapitulates Christ’s own resurrection: God raised Christ from physical death; God raises the believer from spiritual death.

Matthew 6:14-15. “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” The Greek: ean gar aphēte tois anthrōpois ta paraptōmata autōn, aphēsei kai hymin ho patēr hymōn ho ouranios.

This is the commentary verse that produced the “trespasses” tradition in the English rendering of the Lord’s Prayer. The petition in 6:12 uses opheilēmata (debts); the commentary in 6:14-15 uses paraptōmata (trespasses). Both terms describe what the believer needs forgiven and what the believer must forgive in others. The two Greek words sit in the same passage referring to the same theological reality.

The structure of 6:14-15 is significant. Forgiveness of others’ paraptōmata is treated as the sign of having received God’s forgiveness. The text does not say “if you forgive others, you earn God’s forgiveness” — that would reverse the gospel logic. The text says that the believer’s forgiveness of others is the consequence and sign of God’s prior forgiveness of him. The Christian who refuses to forgive others’ paraptōmata shows that he has not understood the paraptōmata God has forgiven him. The Lord’s Prayer ties the two together pastorally and theologically.

2 Corinthians 5:19. “That is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” The Greek: mē logizomenos autois ta paraptōmata autōn.

The reconciliation of the kosmos in Christ (treated in Chapter 9 of this volume) is here named in the paraptōma vocabulary. God reconciles the world by not counting the world’s trespasses against it. The verb logizomai (to count, to reckon, to impute) is the same verb Paul uses in Romans 4 for the imputation of Abraham’s faith as righteousness. In 2 Corinthians 5:19 the imputation is negative: God does not count paraptōmata against the kosmos He is reconciling. The atonement is the basis for the non-counting; the message of reconciliation is the announcement.

Galatians 6:1. “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.” The Greek: ean kai prolēmphthē anthrōpos en tini paraptōmati.

The Christian community’s response to a brother’s paraptōma. The verb katartizō (restore) is the same verb used for mending fishing nets (Matthew 4:21) and for the restoration of broken things to their proper function. The believer who is caught in a paraptōma — a specific false step — is to be restored. The restoration is to be carried out by “you who are spiritual” — those who walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:25). The manner is “a spirit of gentleness” — not harshness, not minimization, but the gentleness that the Spirit produces (Galatians 5:23 — prautēs, meekness or gentleness, is part of the fruit of the Spirit).

The verse is one of the most important practical applications of the paraptōma doctrine. The Christian community does not ignore paraptōmata; the community addresses them. But the address is restoration in gentleness, not condemnation in harshness. The Christian who has been caught in a paraptōma is to be brought back to the path, not punished or excluded.