original sin

Depiction of the sin of Adam and Eve (The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Pieter Paul Rubens)

In Christian theology, original sin (Latin: peccatum originale) is the condition of sinfulness that all humans share, which they inherit from the Fall of Adam and Eve, involving the loss of original righteousness and the distortion of the Image of God. The biblical basis for the belief is generally found in Genesis 3 (the story of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden), and in texts such as Psalm 51:5 ("I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me") and Romans 5:12–21 ("Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned").