Biblical Hebrew Forum

["wattswestmaas" <wattswestmaas AT eircom.net>]

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WALTER WROTE:

Expanding this line of inquiry,"the children bearing the sins of the
fathers," are there any Hebrew Bible verses that identify all the
generations of mankind and womankind as bearing punishment for Adam and
Eve's sin ? That is to say, all the generations of mankind are in a sense
Adam and Eve's "children" and they bear the sin of their progenitors ?
Regards, Walter

MY RESPONSE:  Ok Walter, but this is not punishment, it is a "consequence",
the very thing that Karl and I were trying to discuss in connection with
Exodus 34:7 and the use of the inf. absolute + imperfect construction with
the verb NKH.  The point in all this is that God continually declares His
mercy and readiness to forgive, and scriptural history is littered with
chance upon chance for man to redeem himself from wrong doing.  A punishment
is, by definition, a final declaration of Judgement WITHOUT mercy.

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BILL REA WROTE:

How then do you understand Joshua 7? Achan takes devoted material,
Achan and his children are stoned to death, their bodies are
burned and YHWH turns from his anger. It sure looks like the children
got punished for the sin of their father.

Bill Rea, IT Services, University of Canterbury \_

MY RESPONSE:  I am not going to repeat Sujata,  but I would like to add that
in the context of EXODUS:34:7 this is not a very good argument to respond
with.  Since that in a sense this is not the children being punished for the
sins of the Fathers at all.  What is more, Bill, is that there was a clearly
defined instruction via Joshua that was deliberately disobeyed.  Exodus 34:7
is not to be compared and its inherant meaning is far removed from the "door
of Achan's trouble". (Hosea)

Best regards, Chris watts, Ireland.