At-Onement

Jesus died for our sins—or did he? Nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus actually say he died for anyone’s sins, nor could he have, since he wasn’t dead yet. His intentions were interpreted by others, notably by St. Paul, a Pharisee who was thoroughly imbued with the Old Testament notion that sins must be atoned for with the shedding of blood. The word atonement appears only once in English translations of the New Testament. The 16th-century Bible translator William Tyndale essentially invented the term, borrowing from an earlier contraction of the words “at one,” as in, to be at one with or in accord with. There was nothing in the original connotation of the word to suggest making amends for wrongdoing. Jesus had nothing to say about atonement as we now understand the word. But he did talk about being at one with God, which is the theme explored in this book.