7 deadly sins - Orthodox Canada

REPLY:

The most immediate and direct source is likely from the legalistic mind of Roman Catholicism. However, such concepts predate Christianity. These ideas go back to Chaldean (Babylonian) astrology. The ancient Chaldeans could locate seven major heavenly bodies which appeared to wander in the sky. They developed the idea of seven planets and since they did not have telescopes, thought that these seven bodies rotated in seven concentric circles. They came to believe that these seven planets were spiritual entities. Over the centuries, the idea developed that each of these planetary spheres was governed by spiritual beings. As the ancient Chaldeans and other ancient cultures began to develop a system of social behaviour, this idea of seven spiritual spheres had a great influence on the ideas of good and evil. For example, the so-called seven deadly sins were attached to specific planets, particularly by the Gnostic teachers. Each sin had a specific evil spirit, one of the "keepers of the astral gates or telonia" which pagans and Gnostics believed would attempt to keep the soul from passing by when it departed the body. Thus, envy was associated with the Moon, greed with the Sun, lying with Mercury, lust with Venus, wrathfulness with Mars, pride with Jupiter, and sloth with Saturn. In ancient times, it was thought that when a soul departed from this life, it would attempt to pass through these astral planes, but would be judged at each astral gate by an archon (guardian spirit) of the gate with regard to the specific sin attached to the planetary sphere. The Gnostic cults would enlarge this through combination with Egyptian mythology to a little over twenty. Twenty-one, which is three times seven, became popular. The seven original sins did not cover every human failing and weakness, so eventually what were considered lesser sins were categorized also, but as being less severe. The ancients and the Gnostics had no real understanding of man's relationship with God or of the meaning of redemption, so they understood these things in a purely legalistic ethical sense -- and they also understood which human emotions and passions undermined society and civilization.

In the medieval West, these ideas appeared again and were enshrined particularly by the scholastics, who chiseled medieval legalism in stone -- ultimately, a millstone around the neck of theology and philosophy. The idea of seven cardinal virtues came from the same sources. The Moslems of the middle ages held the idea the there was a specific good angel attached to each of the planetary spheres. This idea likely arose from the old pagan Hellenic philosophers and mythologists, who believed that the planets were pulled along in a transparent substance by spiritual entities. Some Moslem teachers interpreted these spiritual entities as angels, and this idea was borrowed directly by the medieval Latin scholastic writers. The seven astral sphere angels became identified with seven specific virtues. Unfortunately, the scholastic writers did not use these ideas simply as teaching tools or parables, but literalized them in the rigid legalistic way they approach everything.

Your priest has taught you correctly about these matters. It is a great pity that these ideas were borrowed from Latin sources and entered into some editions of Orthodox prayer books and catechisms because they distort the real meaning of sin and repentance. Attempts to categorize sin and virtue in a legalistic manner do more harm than good.