hamarto-, hamart-

1. A tragic flaw leads to the downfall of someone: Hamartia is a Greek word meaning "to miss the mark when shooting an arrow" then Christians would later use the same word to mean "sin".
2. A localized disturbance of the normal arrangement, organization, or patterning of body tissues during development: Hamartia involves the improper proportion and distribution of cells that form structural parts in animals or plants.

The Hamartigenia, "The Origin of Sin" attacked the Gnostic dualism of Marcion and his followers was written by Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (348 A.D – after 405 A.D.) who was a Christian Latin poet whose Psychomachia, "The Contest of the Soul", was the first completely allegorical poem in European literature, and which was immensely influential in the Middle Ages.

In Hamartigenia, Prudentius wrote that the evil and ugly in Nature originates in the devil.

Prudentius is said to have insisted on the place of free will in both the origins and the corrections of evil.

Prudentius' Hamartigenia places the corruption of language, emblematized in the poem by the splitting of Satan's tongue, at the origin of human sin. This article explores how Prudentius associates human sin with the inherently deceptive nature of language. In Hamartigenia, language and its snares, in particular figurative language, are programmatically associated with figures who represent the evils of division and imitation.

Further, figured language, ornament, and rhetoric are conceived of as inherently feminine. The feminine is linked not only with the carnal, but also with language and its deceptive nature. Similarly, the reproductive process, whether sexual or linguistic, is associated not with the transcendent Logos, but with Satan and his split tongue, and with the viper and her endless brood of vicious offspring. The figures of Eve and of Lot's wife embody representation itself, and stand as signs of humanity's fundamental lack of "origin"ality.

A descriptive word that refers to hamartiology: The professor of theology had a hamartiological discussion about the sins of mankind with his students.

1. Someone who deals with the subject of sin or wrong doing in theology; perhaps, as a result of special studies in the area of sinful behavior.
2. A medical expert in the faulty growth or faulty development of normal cells or body tissues.

1. A theological treatment of the doctrine of sin.
2. The study of sin; it's origin, nature, extent, and consequences.

The "sin" word that is used most frequently in the Bible is hamartia, "missing the mark".

It is the most comprehensive term for explaining sin. The Apostle Paul used the verb hamartano when he wrote, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

God has a high and holy standard of what is right, and so long as man follows the Divine standard he will see himself as he truly exists in God’s eyes.

The flat statement of the Almighty is that all men have fallen far short of God’s required standard. It is the popular and common practice of men to create their own standards; however, God has established His standard of perfection for entry into Heaven, and all men have "missed the mark".

God is not cruel and compassionless. He tells us that we “all have sinned,” all have missed the mark, and that if we confess to this fact, admitting that we have sinned, He will forgive and cleanse our sin and guarantee salvation in time and for eternity by accepting Jesus Christ as savior; and not by our "good works".

Man's original sin was disobedience to the command of God not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17, 3:6).

Sin brought shame and recognition of guilt (Genesis 3:10) and curses upon the man, woman, and the earth (Genesis 3:15-19).

Adam's sin brought consequences upon all men, spiritual death and physical death (Genesis 2:17; Ephesians 2:1; Romans 5:12-14), and an inherited sinful nature (Romans 5:12-21; Ephesians 2:3).

Man is also an individual sinner (Romans 3:9-12, 23, 5:12); therefore, man in his condition is unable to produce a righteousness that will give him merit in God's eyes (total depravity) (Romans 3:23; John 3:19). This does not mean man is as evil as he could be for he can get worse (Matthew 7:11).

A neoplasm or an abnormal mass of tissue that serves no purpose or bodily function: One example of a hamartoblastoma is when a lung may contain a mixture of cartilage and connective tissue which are not a normal part of the organ.

1. A tumor-like mass resulting from the faulty growth or development of normal cells or tissue: Harartoma is composed of one or more tissues normal to the organ but which are abnormally mixed and overgrown.

A hamartoma of the lung may contain a mixture of cartilage, connective tissue, and bronchial (windpipe in the throat) epithelium (membranous tissue covering internal organs).

Hamartomas are most frequently found in the skin which are overgrowths of blood vessels; however, they also occur in the lungs, heart, or the kidneys.

3. A tumor resulting from new growth of normal tissues: The cells of the hamartoma grow spontaneously, reach maturity, and then do not reproduce; therefore, the growth is considered to be self-limiting and benign or not harmful.

An excessive compulsion to sin and to do evil things: There are too many people who are possessed with hamartomania or a desire to harm other people and to cause destruction for no logical reason.

The presence or existence of multiple harmless tumors or lesions: A hamartomatosis is usually composed of one or more tissues that are normal for a bodily organ but abnormally mixed and over grown.

Of the nature of or resembling a developmental anomaly or something that is not normal: A hamartomatous mass of tissue which is present in a locality of the body but is of improper proportion and distribution with the dominance of that one type of tissue.

An excessive dread of committing a wrongdoing or an unpardonable sin, or of doing the wrong thing and being condemned for it: Those who have this harmatophobia may fear one of several types of errors, including "memory errors", which are not the same thing as "forgetting"; false recollections; accidents, as while driving a car; or minor accidents, as when spilling things or when dropping something.

Overgrowth of a tissue as a consequence of an excessive repair process.

A misspelling of hamartiological.

A misspelling of hamartiology.

A search on Google, as of April 17, 2006, showed 3,740 websites using the misspelling of "harmartiology" while there were 29,300 sites listed with the correct spelling of "hamartiology".

Congenital malformations that present slowly growing masses of abnormal tissues in multiple areas of the body: The multiple hamartomas are appropriate to the organ in which they are located, but they are not normally organized.

The multiple hamartomas may appear in blood vessels, and in the lung and kidney.

Multiple hamartomas are not malignant, but they cause symptoms of an illness because of the spaces they occupy.