sin'-er (chaTTa; hamartolos, "devoted to sin," "erring one"): In the New Testament, in addition to its ordinary significance of one that sins (Lu 5:8;13:2;Ro 5:8,19;1Ti 1:15;Heb 7:26), the term is applied to those who lived in disregard of ceremonial prescription (Mt 9:10,11;Mr 2:15 ff;Lu 5:30;Ga 2:15); to those stained with certain definite vices or crimes, as the publicans (Lu 15:2;18:13;19:7); to the heathen (Mt 26:45;Ga 2:15; compare Tobit 13:6; 1 Macc 1:34; 2 Macc 2:48,62); to the preeminently sinful (Mr 8:38;Joh 9:24,31;Ga 2:17;1Ti 1:9;Jude 1:15). It was the Jewish term for a woman of ill-fame (Lu 7:37; compareMt 21:32, where it is stated that such had come even to John's baptism also). For the general Biblical conception of the term, seeSIN.
M. O. Evans