The Orthodox Study Bible: Trespasses & Sins

The Orthodox Study Bible, New Testament and Psalms, (1993) Saint Athanasius Orthodox Academy,Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. 

Ephesians 2:1-3

New King James Version (NKJV)

2: 1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the [a]course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

2: 1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins...

The Orthodox Bible states that 'Their deeds are trespasses and sins'. (440). This leads to divine wrath and eternal death. (440).

(This is a translation issue, but as philosophical terms, I prefer the terms everlasting death; the everlasting having a beginning and no ending, while the eternal has no beginning and no ending. The finite can therefore only have everlasting death, of sorts, in reality.)

This is meant for those people living outside of the atoning and resurrection work of Jesus Christ, applied to believers.

Foulkes explains in regard to trespasses and sins (76)...

'There is probably no essential difference between the two nouns...' (76).

'The root meaning of the first is 'missing the mark ' and of the second 'slipping' or 'falling from the way', and thus both express the failure of people to live as they could and should.' (76-77).

Note that the second term 'sins' or 'sin' has in many evangelical sermons also been labelled as 'missing the mark'.

Foulkes agrees with the Orthodoxy text that the death discussed is more so, spiritual death than physical death. (77). These people are outside of Christ and are therefore presently spiritually dead metaphorically, but it is  biblically and theologically more than just a metaphorical meaning, as post-mortem, everlasting death awaits those that remain in sin and outside of the gospel work of Jesus Christ.

Bible Study Tools

παραπτώμασιν: Is trespasses from Ephesians 2: 1.
ἁμαρτίαις : Is sins from Ephesians 2: 1.

Abarim

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Also, ἁμαρτίαις is a noun that is dative, feminine, plural.

The other day I heard an online sermon where the pastor reasoned that trespasses were not sins, but just (paraphrased) mistakes or error.

However, it indeed appears that from scholarship that the two terms overlap with definitions.

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Root words: παράπτωμα, ατος, τό '

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance

offense, sin, trespass. From parapipto; a side-slip (lapse or deviation), i.e. (unintentional) error or (wilful) transgression -- fall, fault, offence, sin, trespass.'

Bible Hub

Root words: ἁμάρτημα, ατος, τό

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance

offense, sin, sinful. From hamartano; a sin (properly abstract) -- offence, sin(-ful).
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Trespasses are theologically in my mind, to be equated with sin (s).

For clarification, a sinful nature or sin nature, would not equate to trespasses, but this corrupted human nature would lead to sinful desires and choices which could biblically and theologically include trespasses. Although the two terms heading this post are not identical in context, they can be equated. I am not willing to draw the definitive, definite, distinction between trespasses and sins that the pastor made in the recent online sermon. But, I can grant that we do not use the terms 'trespass nature', at least in any theology I have read.

FOULKES, FRANCIS (1989) Ephesians, Grand Rapids, Inter-Varsity Press.

The Orthodox Study Bible, New Testament and Psalms, (1993) Saint Athanasius Orthodox Academy,Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee.