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UN PENSIERO SU PARSHAT KI TEITZEI 5786

Does a Child Bear the Sins of His Father? Deuteronomy 24:16, Ezekiel 18, and the Jewish Interpretation

One of the fundamental principles of the Tanakh is that every individual is accountable for his or her own actions. This principle is expressed in several places, but nowhere more clearly than in Deuteronomy and Ezekiel.

Personal Responsibility

In Deuteronomy we read:

“Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their parents; each shall be put to death for his own sin.”
(Deuteronomy 24:16)

The same principle appears in Ezekiel:

“The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”
(Ezekiel 18:20)

At first glance, these passages seem straightforward. The person who commits the sin is the one who bears responsibility for it. An innocent person should not be punished for someone else’s wrongdoing.

However, this appears to stand in tension with passages such as Exodus 20:5, where G-d declares that He “visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation.” How can these passages be reconciled?

Chizkuni: Human Courts and Divine Judgment

The medieval commentator Chizkuni makes an important distinction. According to him, Deuteronomy 24:16 is directed specifically to human courts.

An earthly judge may never execute a child because of the crimes of his father. As an example, Chizkuni points to King Amaziah:

“But he did not put the children of the murderers to death, according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses…”
(2 Kings 14:6)

Amaziah was commended because he obeyed the Torah by punishing only those who were actually guilty.

G-d, however, is not limited in the same way as human judges. He knows every person’s heart and judges with perfect knowledge. His judgments therefore differ from those of earthly courts.

Does this mean that G-d punishes innocent children for the sins of their parents?

Not for Their Parents’ Sins

Chizkuni’s answer is no.

In his commentary on Exodus 20:5, he explains that G-d often delays punishment in order to give sinners an opportunity to repent. His patience may extend beyond the lifetime of the original sinner, even into subsequent generations.

If the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren continue in the same rebellion and refuse to repent, G-d’s judgment eventually comes.

The fourth generation is not punished for the sins of its ancestors, but for il suo sins. The delayed judgment simply demonstrates that G-d has not forgotten the original transgression; He has postponed judgment out of mercy.

In other words, G-d’s patience should never be mistaken for indifference toward sin.

Rashbam Agrees

Rashbam makes essentially the same distinction.

According to him, Deuteronomy 24:16 prohibits only human courts from punishing children for their parents’ crimes.

When Exodus 20:5 speaks of G-d visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, it refers to descendants who continue walking in the same sinful path. G-d had suspended judgment against the earlier generations in the hope that their descendants would choose righteousness instead.

Rashbam points out that Ezekiel 18 clarifies this principle even further. The Jewish exiles complained that they were suffering because of the sins of previous generations. Ezekiel’s response was that every individual is ultimately judged according to his own conduct.

The Broader Biblical Principle

When these passages are read together, a consistent picture emerges:

That is why Ezekiel emphatically declares:

“The soul who sins shall die.”

Neither the father dies for the son, nor the son for the father.

“Each Person Shall Die for His Own Sin” — The Jewish Critique of Vicarious Atonement

One of the fundamental differences between Jewish and Christian interpretations of the Bible concerns the question of whether the guilt of one person can be transferred to another. Christian theology teaches that Jesus took upon himself the punishment for the sins of others. From a Jewish perspective, however, this raises a fundamental question: does the Hebrew Bible not teach that every person remains responsible for his or her own sin?

One of the key passages in this discussion is Deuteronomy 24:16. 

For Jewish interpretation, this is not merely a rule concerning human courts, but an expression of a deeper principle of G-d’s justice: guilt belongs to the person who committed the sin. An innocent person should not bear the punishment that belongs to someone else’s wrongdoing.

Rabbi Tovia Singer uses this principle in his critique of the Christian doctrine of vicarious atonement. According to Singer, the idea that a righteous person can carry the guilt or punishment of others conflicts with the way the Hebrew Bible presents sin, justice, and personal responsibility.

He especially points to Ezekiel 18:20:

“The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor shall the father bear the iniquity of the son.”

According to Rabbi Singer, this chapter presents one of the clearest teachings in the Hebrew Bible concerning individual responsibility. In his article Sin and Atonement, he writes:

“This monumental chapter is filled with fundamental principles of sin and atonement, and a vigorous rejection of the pagan belief in vicarious atonement.”

(Source: Rabbi Tovia Singer, Sin and Atonement, Outreach Judaism.)

By “vicarious atonement,” Rabbi Singer refers to the idea that the guilt of sinners can be transferred to another person who then suffers the consequences on their behalf.

From a Jewish theological perspective, the Torah’s principle is clear: guilt belongs to the person who committed the sin. The difficulty arises not because the Torah leaves the principle itself uncertain, but because certain passages in the Hebrew Bible can, at first glance, appear to suggest otherwise. As we have seen above, Jewish commentators such as Chizkuni and Rashbam explain how these passages can be understood without abandoning the principle of personal responsibility.

This is therefore the deeper problem with the Christian interpretation of Jesus’ death. The issue is not only whether Jesus was innocent, but whether the guilt of the guilty can be placed upon an innocent person in the first place. According to the Torah’s principle of personal responsibility, it cannot.

Ezekiel 18 expresses this principle explicitly:

“The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor shall the father bear the iniquity of the son.”

Responsibility remains personal. A person can repent, return to G-d, and receive forgiveness, but guilt cannot simply be transferred to someone else.

This is the fundamental problem with the Christian doctrine of Jesus’ atoning death. If the Hebrew Bible teaches that each person is accountable for his or her own sin and that one person does not bear the wrongdoing of another, then an innocent person cannot take upon himself the punishment for the sins of others. From this biblical perspective, Jewish tradition understands the doctrine of vicarious atonement as incompatible with the principle of divine justice revealed throughout the Hebrew Bible.

Conclusione

The classical Jewish commentators Chizkuni and Rashbam demonstrate that Deuteronomy 24:16 and Exodus 20:5 are not contradictory.

Deuteronomy establishes a fundamental principle of justice: no human court may punish one person for the crime of another. Exodus describes G-d’s sovereign judgment over history, where punishment may be delayed because of G-d’s patience and mercy. However, when judgment comes, it is directed toward those who continue in the same rebellion; later generations are not condemned merely because of the sins of their ancestors.

Ezekiel 18 makes this principle even more explicit: every individual stands before G-d as a morally responsible person and is judged according to his or her own actions. The son does not bear the father’s guilt, and the father does not bear the son’s guilt.

This principle demonstrates why the Christian doctrine of vicarious atonement is heretical. If the Torah and the Prophets teach that each person bears responsibility for his or her own sin, then the idea that an innocent person can bear the punishment for the sins of others contradicts the biblical standard of divine justice. 

From this perspective, forgiveness is found not through the transfer of guilt to another person, but through repentance, returning to G-d, and receiving His mercy. The consistent message of the Tanakh is that every person ultimately stands before G-d accountable for his or her own choices.

Angelique Sijbolts
Grazie a Rabbi Tani Burton per il feedback

Fonti

https://outreachjudaism.org/sin-and-atonement
https://outreachjudaism.org/about-us

Sin and Atonement


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