Crossword Genius

Dreadful sin in start of the Bible? Not the start (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

terrible

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'dreadful' is the definition.
(I know that dreadful can be written as terrible)

'sin in start of the bible? not the start' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'sin' could be 'err' (to sin is to err morally) and 'err' is located in the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for terrible that I've seen before include "Extremely bad" , "Really bad" , "Like tsar Ivan IV" , "Horrifying" , "Awful, dire" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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