Avon #57

Avon is one of the main Old Testament words for sin, and it is often translated “iniquity.” It is usually connected to a root meaning to bend or twist, and so pictures a deviation from what is straight. Its distinctive feature is that it can refer to the wrongdoing, the guilt that attaches to it, and the punishment that follows, so that English translators must choose which sense a verse has in view.

Biblical Usage

The three senses can be seen in the King James Version’s own choices. Cain’s complaint that his “punishment” is greater than he can bear (Genesis 4:13) uses avon, while David’s prayer to be washed “throughly from mine iniquity” (Psalm 51:2) uses it of moral guilt. God himself is described in Exodus 34:7 as one who forgives “iniquity and transgression and sin,” a triad in which avon stands beside two other words for wrongdoing. Psalm 32:5 pairs confession with forgiveness of the “iniquity of my sin.”

The word is central in the ritual of the Day of Atonement, where Aaron confesses over the live goat all the “iniquities” of Israel, and the goat is said to bear them away to a land not inhabited (Leviticus 16:21-22). The phrase “bear iniquity” is the Old Testament’s way of speaking of carrying guilt, and Isaiah 53 uses it of the Servant: the LORD “hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6), and he “shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11).

Theological Significance

Because avon combines guilt and consequence, the Old Testament treats forgiveness as the removal of a weight and not only the cancellation of a record. The image of carrying it, either by the person who committed it, by a substitute, or by God, underlies much of Israel’s sacrificial and prophetic language. Christians have read Isaiah 53 as pointing to Christ’s work, and the Gospels and letters draw on its wording, while Jewish interpreters more often identify the Servant with Israel or with a righteous remnant. The word’s range of meaning is one reason the biblical view of sin is not only legal but also relational and moral.