How many times does the Bible mention sin?

The count

• KJV: “sin,” “sins,” “sinned,” “sinful” together appear about 470 times.
• BSB, NIV: similar range.
• Broader sin-vocabulary including “transgression,” “iniquity,” “trespass,” “evil,” “wickedness”: approximately 1,200 occurrences total. The narrower “sin” word-family alone is around 700.

The Hebrew vocabulary

The Old Testament uses three principal Hebrew words for sin, each with distinct connotations:

• chet (חֵטְא) — “missing the mark, failing to hit.” About 590 occurrences across all related forms. The verb chata (חָטָא) means literally “to miss” — used in Judges 20:16 of slingers who could throw a stone at a hair and not miss. Applied to moral failure, it suggests falling short of the standard.
• avon (עָוֺן) — “iniquity, perversion, twistedness.” About 230 occurrences. The underlying verb avah (עָוָה) means “to bend, twist, distort.” Used for the bent or perverted character of wrongdoing.
• pesha (פֶּשַׁע) — “rebellion, transgression.” About 134 occurrences. The most pointed of the three; suggests willful defiance of a recognised authority, often used for Israel’s covenant-breaking.

These three are sometimes used in close succession for cumulative emphasis (e.g., Psalm 32:5; Exodus 34:7).

The Greek vocabulary

• hamartia (ἁμαρτία, “sin”): about 173 occurrences. The Greek verb means “to miss the mark” — semantically parallel to Hebrew chet.
• paraptōma (παράπτωμα, “trespass, false step”): about 19 occurrences.
• anomia (ἀνομία, “lawlessness”): about 15 occurrences.
• adikia (ἀδικία, “unrighteousness, injustice”): about 25 occurrences.

The Pauline use of hamartia in Romans personifies sin as a power that enslaves humanity, going beyond the simple “act of wrongdoing” sense.

What “missing the mark” means

The common gloss “sin = missing the mark” comes from the literal meaning of chet and hamartia. The image is archery: the target is what is right; sin is the arrow that fails to hit it.

This image is sometimes pressed to soften sin into mere “mistake” or “imperfection.” The biblical usage does not support that softening. Chet covers a wide spectrum from inadvertent error (Leviticus 4:2 — sins committed “unintentionally”) to willful evil. Pesha and avon press the willful and twisted senses. The combined biblical vocabulary describes wrongdoing as both failure (missing the mark) and as rebellion (active defiance of God’s standard).

Where sin concentrates

• The Pentateuch’s legal sections (Leviticus, Numbers) — dense with sin-vocabulary in the context of sacrificial atonement.
• The Prophets — sin as covenant-breaking by Israel and Judah.
• Romans 1–8 — Paul’s densest treatment of sin as a power and as personal action.
• 1 John — the Johannine treatment of sin and confession.