Seven Deadly Sins - History

History

The modern concept of the seven deadly sins is linked to the works of the 4th century monk Evagrius Ponticus, who listed eight evil thoughts in Greek as follows:

• Γαστριμαργία (gastrimargia) gluttony.
• Πορνεία (porneia) prostitution, fornication.
• Φιλαργυρία (philargyria) avarice.
• Ὑπερηφανία (hyperēphania) hubris - in the Philokalia, this term is rendered as self-esteem.
• Λύπη (lypē) sadness - in the Philokalia, this term is rendered as envy, sadness at another's good fortune.
• Ὀργή (orgē) wrath.
• Κενοδοξία (kenodoxia) boasting.
• Ἀκηδία (akēdia) acedia - in the Philokalia, this term is rendered as dejection.

They were translated into the Latin of Western Christianity (largely due to the writings of John Cassian), thus becoming part of the Western tradition's spiritual pietas (or Catholic devotions), as follows:

• Gula (gluttony)
• Fornicatio (fornication, lust)
• Avaritia (avarice/greed)
• Superbia (hubris, pride)
• Tristitia (sorrow/despair/despondency)
• Ira (wrath)
• Vanagloria (vainglory)
• Acedia (acedia/shay/sloth)

These "evil thoughts" can be collected into three groups:

• lustful appetite (gluttony, fornication, and avarice)
• irascibility (Wrath)
• intellect (vainglory, sorrow, pride, and Discouragement)

In AD 590, a little over two centuries after Evagrius wrote his list, Pope Gregory I revised this list to form the more common Seven Deadly Sins, by folding (sorrow/despair/despondency) into acedia, vainglory into pride, and adding envy. In the order used by both Pope Gregory and by Dante Alighieri in his epic poem The Divine Comedy, the seven deadly sins are as follows:

1. luxuria (lechery/lust)
2. gula (gluttony)
3. avaritia (avarice/greed)
4. acedia (acedia/discouragement/sloth)
5. ira (wrath)
6. invidia (envy)
7. superbia (pride)

The identification and definition of the seven deadly sins over their history has been a fluid process and the idea of what each of the seven actually encompasses has evolved over time. Additionally, as a result of semantic change:

• socordia sloth was substituted for acedia

It is this revised list that Dante uses. The process of semantic change has been aided by the fact that the personality traits are not collectively referred to, in either a cohesive or codified manner, by the Bible itself; other literary and ecclesiastical works were instead consulted, as sources from which definitions might be drawn. Part II of Dante's Divine Comedy, Purgatorio, has almost certainly been the best known source since the Renaissance.

The modern Roman Catholic Catechism lists the sins in Latin as "superbia, avaritia, invidia, ira, luxuria, gula, pigritia seu acedia", with an English translation of "pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth/acedia". Each of the seven deadly sins now also has an opposite among corresponding seven holy virtues (sometimes also referred to as the contrary virtues). In parallel order to the sins they oppose, the seven holy virtues are humility, charity, kindness, patience, chastity, temperance, and diligence.