Of Sins

Introduction

Abstract words are strange words. By definition, they are considered apart from concrete things, they are a concept or a feeling. According to , abstract means "thought of or stated without reference to a specific instance," and later goes to say "abstract words like truth and justice." So the concept of an abstract word encompasses everything from feelings, spiritual things, virtues, to sins.

The Seven Heavenly Virtues are the seven most prized words on Earth. The Seven Deadly Sins are the seven most despised words, and the polar opposites of the Virtues. What is interesting is the fact that one of the Sins is demonstrated on a daily basis by almost everyone on this world. At first, I thought that Gluttony was the most common Sin; however, after looking at some of the others, I found that Wrath is even more common than Gluttony. Wrath is demonstrated in wars, in the Bible, in the Qur'an, in the Torah, in the Book of Mormon, and in many other books and events.

Dictionary

According to , wrath is a forceful and often vindictive anger, or a divine retribution for sin. The website also states that wrath is a belligerence aroused by a real or supposed wrong, that it is punishment or vengeance as a manifestation of anger. The definition using the terms 'real or supposed wrong' suggest that the event causing the extreme anger (and the wrath that follows) need not be a legitimately wrong event. In my interpretation of this particular phrase, supposed wrong is one person believing that another did them a horrible wrong and the other believes differently, usually that the wrong is less than the first person says it is.

"Wrath: Violent anger, vehement exasperation, indignation, fury" and "Wrath: Any action carried out in great anger, especially for punishment or vengeance" are both excerpts from Webster's New Twelfth Century Dictionary. Comparing the two dictionary sources, the definitions are very similar. However, the use in the online Dictionary entry of 'divine retribution for sin' implies that Wrath is a religious sin, not just a sin of the nonbelievers. A discrepancy between sources appears here, forcing us to take a deeper look at the word Wrath.

Divine retribution reappears in the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (second volume) under the entry Wrath in the second definition: "Divine displeasure or retribution." This brings our religious count to 2 out of three dictionaries. The Oxford Dictionary also goes to say that Wrath is an 'intense anger or indignation,' agreeing with the Webster, and also 'deeply resentful,' not agreeing with either of the other dictionaries. As the number of discrepancies between sources grows, the similarities also grow. Oxford agrees with in the statement that wrath is 'divine retribution,' and is in concordance with the Webster Dictionary in the 'intense anger or indignation' portion. The definition of wrath, simply put, is an intense anger, indignation, or divine retribution.

Thesaurus

Anger, fury, indignation, ire, and rage are all synonyms to the Deadly Sin of Wrath, according to the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus. Again, indignation shows up on the forefront. Back to the thesaurus' entry, some related words are offense and resentment. , the sister site to , lists twenty-seven synonyms for wrath, including displeasure, exasperation, fury, hate, indignation, offense, resentment, and vengeance. There's an agreement between the website thesaurus and the three dictionaries as well as its fellow book of synonyms. An interesting occurrence is the reappearance for the forth time of the word indignation.

Book of Quotations

John Bartlett's book of quotes, Familiar Quotations, was particularly useful. In searching for Wrath, some twenty or so entries were listed. Among them were those made by John Edwards in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and Irvin Shrewsburry Cobb's Definition of "corn licker" given to the Distiller's Code of Authority. John Edwards' quote: "The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire." The usage of God and the meticulous description of His point of view implies that God is disgusted or even scared of humanity and how it's become.

However Shrewsburry states "It smells like gangrene starting in a mildew silo, it tastes like the wrath to come, and when you absorb a deep swig of it you have all the sensations of having swallowed a lighted kerosene lamp. A sudden, violent jolt of it has been known to stop the victim's watch, snap his suspenders and crack his glass eye right across." The book of quotations doesn't say what he was referring to, but one can assume that Shrewsburry may have been talking about a type of alcohol or drink, from the description of the kerosene lamp.

In Familiar Quotations, there are several quotes from the Bible, including this one, Jude chapter 1, verses 19 and 20: "Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." In this case, the 'wrath of man' is not okay, it's not acceptable in the eyes of God. God views wrath as a sin here.

Another book of quotations is that of Franklin Baer, "Creative Quotations," where many famous people's sayings have been recorded. Theodore Reik stated that "Great innovators and original thinkers and artists attract the wrath of mediocrities as lightning rods draw the flashes." Keeping in mind that mediocrities are weaknesses, this quote entails that original people attract the anger of those with weaknesses. Those people with the weaknesses are the ones who tell the innovators that they're crazy or that their ideas will never work, or that the artists will never become famous and rich off their works.

Along with Reik's quote, one by Friedrich Nietzsche is recorded. "Not by wrath does one kill, but by laughter." Let's say that Jenny goes to school and the teacher yells at her for being disruptive in class, so she stays pretty quiet after that, save for a few snide comments said to her friend. After school, Jenny runs into a group of really popular girls. A few of them make fun at her clothes and the others laugh at the cruel jokes made. When she gets home, Jenny cries for an hour with her face in the pillow. Nietzsche's quote is demonstrated here. The other girls laughing at her made her more upset than the teacher's wrath did.

Concordance to Bible (King James Version)

In Exodus, God is giving His rules to man, as well as the punishment for breaking these rules. In chapter 22 verses 22-24, God says, "Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry; And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless." Here, wrath is in context of repaying the damage dealt by a person to another person.

Farther into the Bible, though still in the Old Testament, Psalms 2:5 states, "Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure." At this point in the text, God is speaking about heathen rage and vain kings. In the verse before it, God says, "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in their derision." The point He is trying to make is that the heathen kings can mock him all they want, but in the end, they will face God's wrath.

Revelations is the book that tells of the coming Apocalypse. It tells of the plagues and the Glorious Appearance of Jesus Christ. In chapter 15, the first thing that John says is this: "And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up with the wrath of God." The 'wrath of God' should sound familiar. 'Divine retribution' was one of the definitions of wrath, from an earlier section. Assuming—God forbid any different—that God is divine, we have another concurrence: the seven angels are filled with the power of 'divine retribution' from God.

Concordance to Shakespeare

William Shakespeare used the word wrath in many of his plays and much of his poetry; his Macbeth is one of them. In the fifth scene of act five, Lord Macbeth and his messenger are in an argument. Lord Macbeth accuses the messenger to be a "Liar and slave!" when he tells Macbeth of Lady Macbeth's death, and the messenger replies, "Let me endure your wrath, if't be not so: Within this three mile may you see it coming; I say, a moving grove."

Another instance where Shakespeare used wrath is in the poem The Rape of Lucrece, in the 130th stanza. The misfortune described in this particular stanza of the poem portrays wrath as a common thing by way of the third line, 'Justice is feasting while the widow weeps.' It's implied that the widow's late husband was taken by the court and put to death, the ultimate wrath on a woman.

The patient dies while the physician sleeps;

The orphan pines while the oppressor feeds;

Justice is feasting while the widow weeps;

Advice is sporting while infection breeds:

Thou grant'st no time for charitable deeds:

Wrath, envy, treason, rape, and murder's rages;

Thy heinous hours wait on them as their pages.

Wrath also makes an appearance in A Lover's Complaint, stanza 42, where a daughter is stating her case against her father about his decision to forbid her love to the man she holds dear.

O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies

In the small orb of one particular tear!

But with the inundation of the eyes

What rocky heart to water will not wear?

What breast so cold that is not warmed here?

O cleft effect! cold modesty, hot wrath,

Both fire from hence and chill extincture hath.

Poetry

William Blake has a poem titled The Poison Tree in which the character expresses his anger at a friend and then anger at an enemy. He tells of his wrath to his friend, and ceases to be angry, but says nothing about his feelings to his foe, and the poem shows the events that follow.

I was angry with my friend;

I told my wrath, my wrath did end.

I was angry with my foe:

I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears,

Night and morning with my tears:

And I sunned it with smiles,

And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,

Till it bore an apple bright.

And my foe beheld it shine,

And he knew that it was mine.

And into my garden stole,

When the night had veiled the pole;

In the morning, glad I see,

My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

Blake's shorter poem Day also expresses wrath. In this five line work, personification is used with the Sun and the sun's rays. The sun is portrayed as a soldier, perhaps one of high rank, whose wrath is huge and backed by an army of a substantial size.

The Sun arises in the East,

Cloth'd in robes of blood and gold;

Swords and spears and wrath increast

All around his bosom roll'd

Crown'd with warlike fires and raging desires.

Proquest Direct

Robert Marsh and Rudi Dallos conducted a survey on anger and wrath in Roman Catholic Couples, titled just that: Roman Catholic Couples: Wrath and Religion. In the preliminary studies, Marsh states that there are "…tensions between psychological and religious approaches to anger. The religious perspective assumes an automatic link between anger and damage, which seems to be based on fear of anger." Dallos provides another fact: "Interestingly, His is often the jealous anger of a spouse, provoked by Israel's unfaithfulness. For His chosen people, His love coexists with His anger, and some theologians have portrayed His wrath as an injured love."

In the actual survey, eleven of the participants referred to the negative effects of anger on their relationship. "The most commonly cited reason for not expressing anger was that it would either damage the spouse, or the relationship: 'I feel that when I'm angry, expressing anger would break the relationship'." Thirteen people made reference to the acceptability of anger, usually by citing the example of Jesus demonstrating 'righteous anger' with the money-changers in the temple. "Three of these participants believed that God created people and their emotions in His own image so that anger was therefore 'from God' and acceptable."

Song Lyrics

In most popular music, the word wrath is not used. Because of this, a different style had to be found, specifically a style that is based off of anger, or rage. My search took me then to . A group by the name of Cradle of Filth uses wrath in three different songs, on three different albums: 'The Promise of Fever' from Damnation and a Day, 'Stripped to the Bone' from Lovecraft and Witchhearts, and 'Thirteen Autumns and a Widow' from Cruelty and the Beast. In the first verse of 'The Promise of Fever,' wrath is from a storm from heaven. 'Stripped to the Bone' uses wrath as a response to a forbidden lust. Elizabeth is freed at the end of the song 'Thirteen Autumns and a Widow' from God and His wrath.

The Promise of Fever

In the beginning

Rimmed with wind and storm

A great black wrath of infinite math

Spat snarling into form

And there was Heaven

Lit up with precious stones

Each one could fall but for the rule

Of Faith and love and stronger thrones.

Stripped to the Bone

Writhing like a viper

Deep inside her Eden

Forbidden to eat

I kiss leylines to her feet

Then baited wrath

I steel a path

Back to the fruits of her womb…

Back to the crack of her tomb…

Thirteen Autumns and a Widow

She awoke from a fable to morning

Church bells wringing Her madly from sleep

Tolled by a priest, self castrated and hung

Like a crimson bat 'neath the belfry

The biblical prattled their mantras

Hexes six-tripled their fees

But Elizabeth laughed, thirteen autumns had passed

And She was a widow from God and His wrath, finally…

Other: Qur'an

The Prophet Mohammed was met by the angel Gabriel, who had a message from God detailing how Mohammed's people were to worship Him. Mainly, Islam is a militaristic religion, so its rule is through either fear, or prolonged exposure. However, fear is not only fear of the Muslims, fear is from Allah and his wrath, so stated in Surah 3, Al-i-'Imran, verse 162: "Is the man who follows the good pleasure of Allah like the man who draws on himself the wrath of Allah, and whose abode is in Hell? A woeful refuge," Surah 4, An-Nisaa, verse 93: "If a man kills a Believer intentionally, his recompense is Hell, to abide therein (forever): and the wrath and the curse of Allah are upon him, and a dreadful penalty is prepared for him," and in Surah 5, Al-Maidah, verse 80: "Thou seest many of them turning friendship to the Unbelievers. Evil indeed are (the works) which their souls have sent forward before them (with the result), that Allah's wrath is on them, and in torment they will abide."

Other: Book of Mormon

Joseph Smith was also visited by an angel from God with the accounts of Nephi and his people amongst others and their stories and lessons. Wrath is in every religious text, the Book of Mormon is no exception, though the word wrath is never used. Vengeance and fury find a home in the following verses. Alma 52:33-35: "And it came to pass that Jacob, being their leader, being also a Zoramite, and having an unconquerable spirit, he led the Lamanites forth to battle with exceeding fury against Moroni. Moroni being in their course of marching, therefore Jacob was determined to slay them and cut his way through to the city of Mulek. But behold, Moroni and his men were more powerful; therefore they did not give way before the Lamanites. And it came to pass that they fought on both hands with exceeding fury; and there were many slain on both sides; yea, and Moroni was wounded and Jacob was killed."

Mormon 4:15: "Vengeance is mine, and I will repay; and because this people repented not after I had delivered them, behold, they shall be cut off from the face of the earth." –Said by the Lord to the man Mormon. The final verse found to have vengeance involved was that of the same section of Mormon, chapter 8, verse 20: "Behold what the scripture says—man shall not smite, neither shall he judge; for Judgment is mine, saith the Lord, and vengeance is mine also, and I will repay."

Other:

According to the website "The Seven Deadly Sins Revealed," Wrath, or anger, is "manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury." This definition does not concur with any previous source so far. The site continues to say that "You are wired for it. Also, the people around you are pretty damn irritating." Although this is an amusing reason, I still don't know why we do take out a wrath on someone. Seven Deadly Sins says that it is punishable (in Hell) by dismemberment of the body while alive. The punishment given on the site for gluttony (to be fed only rats, toads, and snakes) seems a bit more fitting than live dismemberment. The Summa Theologiæ by Thomas Aquinas states that "Anger is the name of a passion. A passion of the sensitive appetite is good so far as it is regulated by reason, whereas it is evil if it sets the order of reason aside." (Summa Theologiæ found via )

Conclusion

In searching through the monstrous amounts of abstract feelings, spiritual jargon, virtues and sins, wrath was chosen because it is everywhere. It is in political wars, militaristic wars, and even the jihad (holy wars). Wrath is even written into human nature, along with our self interest, or interest in self preservation. Wrath is in context of repaying the damage dealt by a person to another person. It is the rage we face if God is angered and by his hand, divine retribution is dealt out. Wrath is the act of jealousy by the Judeo-Christian God.