more sinned against than sinned

[vil]

Dear teachers,

Recently I have read the following excerpt in an article, where in my opinion every word is clear and comprehensible:

"If we sin, then biblically, we do not love God, our fellow man, or for that matter, ourselves, because sinning means we have taken steps toward committing spiritual suicide! If we do this, it also means that we do not appreciate that God has given us life and has given His life so that we can claim His awesome promise of living eternally with Him."

On the other hand I remembered an expression from Shakespeare's King Lear namely "more sinned against than sinning". Could you please explain to me in plain English the meaning this idiom? This metamorphose of the words is very strange and incomprehensible for me.

V.

please excuse my absent-mindedness!!! The title is wrong - it have to be
"more sinned against than sinning"

[Naamplao]

Originally Posted by vil

Dear teachers,

Recently I have read the following excerpt in an article, where in my opinion every word is clear and comprehensible:

"If we sin, then biblically, we do not love God, our fellow man, or for that matter, ourselves, because sinning means we have taken steps toward committing spiritual suicide! If we do this, it also means that we do not appreciate that God has given us life and has given His life so that we can claim His awesome promise of living eternally with Him."

On the other hand I remembered an expression from Shakespeare's King Lear namely "more sinned against than sinning". Could you please explain to me in plain English the meaning this idiom? This metamorphose of the words is very strange and incomprehensible for me.

V.

please excuse my absent-mindedness!!! The title is wrong - it have to be
"more sinned against than sinning"

It means the person is a sinner but he/she not as bad as others. That person seems to be the object of more sin compared to what he/she commits.

[vil]

Hi Naamplao,

Thank you for your precisely interpretation this idiom. In other words, this man is less guilty than those who have injured one, as in "It's true she took the money but they did owe her quite a bit - in a way she's more sinned against than sinning."

Naamplao, excuse my abysmal ignorance, but I couldn't comprehend the grammatical construction this expression. For me is very difficult to make sense of the usage such words as "sinned" and "sinning" as well as their different interpretation in this case. Would you please spare me more time for more detail explanation.

On the second hand I disagree in principle the philosophical sense of this idiom, but this is an another subject.

Thank you for your backing.

V.

[Naamplao]

Originally Posted by vil

Hi Naamplao,

Thank you for your precisely interpretation this idiom. In other words, this man is less guilty than those who have injured one, as in "It's true she took the money but they did owe her quite a bit - in a way she's more sinned against than sinning."

Naamplao, excuse my abysmal ignorance, but I couldn't comprehend the grammatical construction this expression. For me is very difficult to make sense of the usage such words as "sinned" and "sinning" as well as their different interpretation in this case. Would you please spare me more time for more detail explanation.

On the second hand I disagree in principle the philosophical sense of this idiom, but this is an another subject.

Thank you for your backing.

V.

I am not sure what you are after but there are a few implied words missing from the phrase.

I will assume a male gender is intended.

(He is )more sinned against than (he is) sinning.

He is a tragic villain. A bad guy who you have sympathy for since others are doing worse things to him.

[vil]

Hi Naamplao,

Thank you again. I see... this make sense. Finally, after recovering the missing words, I caught the the essentially meaning this idiom.

Let's see.

1 example: The Bible idealizes David as a warrior, statesman, loyal friend, and gifted poet, yet it does not fail to mention his faults and moral lapses. At one time David callously plotted the death in battle of one of his officers, Urich, so that he could marry Uriah's beautiful wife Bathsheba.
For this he was denounced by the prophet Nathan, and recognizing that he had committed a great moral wrong, the King failed and prayed in repentance.

This was a criminal deed, right? He have to be punished, right?

From one hand he was God's favorite and from second hand he was respected from the Israelites.

He is more sinned against than sinning.

2 example: The thief who was from the Jesus' right side on the cross. He has ingratiated the sympathy of Jesus who said him "Take it easy. Tomorrow you will together with me in parades".

He is more sinned against than sinned.

Do you understand what I mean?

I remember an expression in Orwell's "The animals farm" namely "it seem that some animals will always be more equal than others."

But how I said this is an another subject.

V.