Texts in Conversation
Exodus 20 says that punishment can pass to the children of those who turn from God, which conflicts with parts of the Hebrew Bible that stress personal responsibility. The Aramaic translation in Targum Neofiti tries to resolve this by rejecting inherited guilt and saying that children are punished when they repeat their parents’ sin.
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Exodus 20:5
Hebrew Bible
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations of those who reject me, 6 and showing covenant faithfulness to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Neofiti Exodus 20:5
Targum
4 You shall not make to yourselves image or figure, or any similitude of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them, or worship before them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God and an avenger, punishing with vengeance, recording the guilt of wicked fathers upon rebellious children unto the third and unto the fourth generation of them who hate Me; 6 but keeping mercy and goodness for thousands of generations of the righteous who love Me, and who keep My commandments and My laws.
Date: 300-1000 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... A theological example involves the harmonization of Exodus 20:5, which states that God will punish the children of those who hate him for three and four generations, with Deuteronomy 24:16, which says that children will not be slain for the sins of their fathers, but that everyone is slain for their own sin. Both Onkelos and Neofiti stress that the children of the wicked are not being punished for sin that is merely imputed to them, but for acts they have wholeheartedly imitated. Neofiti stresses that the expression “those who hate me” refers to the children, not to the parents ..."
Cook, Edward M.
"The Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in the Targums" in Henze, Matthias (ed.) A Companion to Biblical Interpretation in Early Judaism
(pp. 92-117) William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2012
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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