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Re: the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God): Why did it change from ‘sin’ to ‘sins’? What ‘sins’ are being referenced?

Editor's Note: This has been updated and corrected since it went to press.

The change was made in the context of the revision of the Roman Missal and the Lectionary to more closely conform to the official Latin liturgical text. In the official Latin text, the Agnus Dei has  “peccata mundi” (the sins of the world). This was previously rendered “sin of the world” in the English translations that were part of the 1970 and 1975 editions of the missal, perhaps because most Scripture translations render the Greek of John’s Gospel that way. Since the new Latin edition of  the missal came out in 2002, the English translation now says “the sins of the world.” These sins, are of course, original sin, which we inherited from Adam, as well as our own personal sins, from all of which Christ came to deliver us (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 408).

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