Ezek 18:2-4 is often used as a proof-text against the various formulations of Original Sin. Commenting on Jer 31:28-29 and Ezek 18:2-3, Abner Chou noted the following that offers substantiation of this interpretation:
quote
a popular maxim in Israel, stating “the fathers have eaten the bitter grapes
and the children’s teeth received the edge.” In essence, Israel claimed they
received the punishment their parents should have received. The looming
judgment was not their fault but their parents’ fault. The saying is based upon
Exodus 20:5 and Deuteronomy 5:9, where God said the punishment for the sins of
the fathers would go onto the children. Israel’s proverb interprets those
verses to teach God punishes the children in place of their parents. Hence, he
can hold the children guilty for their parents’ sin. God counters these
allegations by saying every individual is responsible for their sin from now on
(cf. Jer. 31:30; Ezek. 18:4). However, that seems to contradict what he said in
Exodus 20:5 and Deuteronomy 5:9. Is this an instance where God changes or
contradicts the meaning of previous revelation?
In
addressing this, the key is to determine what Exodus 20:5 and Deuteronomy 5:9
taught. Do those passages say God will condemn the children instead of their
parents? Do those verses imply God does not hold the individual responsible? A
careful look at Exodus 20:5 and Deuteronomy 5:9 shows this is not the case.
Those two passages reflect how the consequences of punishment (“God visiting
the iniquity”) can spill over to other people. For example, a famine would
impact subsequent generations. Exile also would certainly affect one’s
children. Merrill sums up the verse by saying, “The repercussions are so great
as to impact generations yet unborn if they continue to hate God” (Merrill, Deuteronomy,
148). Thus, Exodus 20:5 and Deuteronomy 5:9 warn that one’s sin has
long-reaching effects. Nevertheless, all of this is far from saying God held
the children guilty instead of their parents. These verses do not say that
Israel claimed they said.
In
fact, the wording specifically states the opposite of what Israel maintained.
The text state God will continue the consequences of sin against those who
hate him (לְשֹׂנְאָֽ֑י, Ex. 20:5; Deut. 5:9). Tigay observes this
indicates that God prolongs the effects of his judgment only if future
generations prove to be disobedient as well. As such, these verses teach that
God holds individual responsible for their own actions.
If
this is the case, then God was not reinterpreting Exodus 20:5 and Deuteronomy
5:9. Those texts affirm his emphasis on individual responsibility. Rather, the
discussion shows that the Israelites thoroughly misinterpreted those passages.
They believed God held them guilty for sins they had not done—an idea those
texts never intended at all. As scholars agree, the Israelites did not
understand the passage correctly (Cooper, Ezekiel, 189; Block, Ezekiel
1-24, 561).
Thus,
in context, God I not reinterpreting his Word but rather confronting Israel for
their misinterpretation. In both Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the Lord rectifies
Israel’s error by quoting a form of Deuteronomy 24:16, which states that the
one who sins will die (cf. Jer. 31:30; Ezek. 18:4) (Fishbane, Biblical
Interpretation, 337-39). God has upheld individual responsibility. Thus,
while the punishment against the parents may incidentally harm future
generations, Israel cannot appeal to these verses to blame their parents (or
even God’s sovereignty) for their problems while absolving themselves from
guilt (Ezek. 18:19). As Cooper and Block observe, the original intent of Exodus
20:5 and Deuteronomy 5:9 should have remind them that if they bear God’s
judgment it is because they too were “those who hate him” (Cooper, Ezekiel,
189; Block, Ezekiel 1-24, 561). Thus, these passages to not justify
blame-shifting. Instead, Israel should realize that God always will heed and
response to repentance (Ezek. 18:21). The Lord will make this clear, both in
the current age as well as in the new era to come. Israel would then cease to
use the proverb (Ezek 18:3) because it grossly misrepresents God’s declaration
(Block, Ezekiel 1-24, 561). (Abner Chou, The Hermeneutics of the
Biblical Writers: Learning to Interpret Scripture from the Prophet and Apostles
[Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications, 2018], 63-65, italics in
original)
In the above, Chou references
Jeffrey Tigay’s commentary on Deuteronomy, pp. 436-37. Here is the text
in full:
Excursus 8
Cross-Generational Retribution (5:9–10 and 7:9–10)
According to 5:9–10, God “visits the guilt of the parents upon the
children” and rewards descendants for their ancestors’ loyalty and obedience.
This idea, also expressed elsewhere in the Bible, is found in Greek and Hittite
literature as well. As noted in the Comment to 5:9, the idea corresponds to the
concept of family solidarity in ancient societies, especially those with a
tribal background. The basic unit of society was the family, not the
individual. Individuals were not viewed as separate entities but as
inextricably bound up with their kin, including past and future generations.
Members of a family expected to share a common fortune, whether good or bad. An
adoption contract from Mari states that the adoptive son shall share his
adoptive parents’ good fortune and their bad fortune. In the light of this
concept, it was natural that Saul promised to reward both Goliath’s killer and
the killer’s family, and that grants given to reward loyal servants were to
pass on to their descendants in perpetuity. Given the feelings of a person for
his family and later descendants, it was recognized that their suffering was
indeed painful to him and hence an effective punishment, just as one might
reward a person with a benefaction to his family or his descendants. The very
threat of harm or promise of benefit to one’s family could serve to deter or
encourage certain behavior.
Effective as this approach may have been, Deuteronomy 24:16 forbids its
application by judicial authorities: “Parents shall not be put to death for
children, nor children be put to death for parents: a person shall be put to
death only for his own crime.” But experience showed that people often do
suffer or benefit because of the actions of their ancestors; one modern commentator
termed this the “most firmly established of all the lessons of history”
(Wellhausen). Accordingly, the cross-generational retribution that was denied
to human authorities was recognized as an aspect of divine governance: loyalty
to God is rewarded, and rebellion against Him punished, across the generations.
Tradition recorded that Noah’s entire family was saved along with him, that
Abraham’s descendants were given the promised land because of his loyalty to
God, and that the descendants of Phinehas and David inherited, respectively,
the priesthood and the monarchy because of their forebears’ loyalty to God. On
the other hand, the entire households of Dathan and Abiram perished along with
them, while punishments due to David, Jeroboam, and Ahab were carried out on
their descendants. Indeed, the generation of the fall of Jerusalem believed
that it was being punished for the sins of Manasseh’s generation, though not
all denied that their own generation, too, had sinned. A popular saying
circulated complaining that “fathers have eaten sour grapes and children’s
teeth are blunted.”
Jeremiah and Ezekiel both felt compelled to refer to this attitude when
urging their contemporaries to have confidence in a restoration. They
apparently found it a hindrance to confidence. Jeremiah asserted that in the
future even God would no longer punish descendants for their ancestors’ sins;
He would punish individuals solely for their own actions, as He requires of
human authorities in Deuteronomy 24:16. Ezekiel denied that God operated that
way even in the present and was punishing Judah for ancestral guilt: even now,
according to Ezekiel, God rewards and punishes people only for their own deeds.
In talmudic times Rabbi Yosi bar Ḥaninah recognized that Ezekiel in effect
abrogated the principle of cross-generational punishment expressed in the
Decalogue. In his words, “Moses said ‘Visiting the guilt of the parents upon
the children,’ but Ezekiel came and annulled it: ‘The person who sins, only he
shall die.’ ”
Jeremiah and Ezekiel were not the only ones to mitigate the doctrine of
cross-generational punishment by God. It is partially mitigated in the Torah
itself. In the Torah, only Exodus 34:7 and Numbers 14:18 state without
qualification that God visits the sins of fathers upon children. In both
versions of the Decalogue, the list of generations to be punished and rewarded
is qualified by the phrases “of those who hate Me,” and “of those who love Me
and keep My commandments” (Deut. 5:9–10; Exod. 20:5–6). The phrases most likely
refer to the descendants, meaning that cross-generational retribution applies
only to descendants who act as their ancestors did; in other words: God “visits
the guilt of the fathers on future generations that reject Him and rewards the loyalty of ancestors to the
thousandth generation of descendants who
are also loyal to Him” In other words, God punishes or rewards descendants
for ancestral sins and virtues along with
their own if they—the descendants—“continue the deeds of their ancestors.”
This idea of compound
punishment befalling sinful descendants, attested in Leviticus 26:39 and
elsewhere, occupies the middle ground between cross-generational retribution
and the principle that individuals should be rewarded and punished only for
their own deeds. It recognizes the reality of the former but holds that
cross-generational rewards and punishments only come to those who merit similar
retribution on their own. This qualification avoids the demoralizing effect
that the principle of cross-generational retribution had in its unconditional
form (“Why obey if our fate has already been determined by our ancestors’
conduct?”).
Deuteronomy 7:9–10 goes one step further. According to that passage, God
“keeps His covenant faithfully to the thousandth generation of those who love
Him and keep His commandments, but instantly requites with destruction those
who reject Him—never slow with those who reject Him, but requiting them
instantly.” Here, only divine rewards
are extended down through the generations. God punishes sinners personally and
instantly, and not a word is said of His extending the punishment to sinners’
descendants. According to this version, God Himself acts in accordance with the
principle He established in 24:16. (Jeffrey H. Tigay, Deuteronomy
[The JPS Torah Commentary; Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1996],
436-37)
