Texts in Conversation
Exodus 20 says punishment applies to the children of those who reject God, conflicting with other texts that stress personal responsibility. Targum Neofiti tries to resolve this by saying children are punished only when they repeat their parents’ sin.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
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: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Neofiti Exodus 20:5
Targum
4 Do not make yourselves ⟨an image or a figure⟩, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the sea beneath the earth. 5 Do not bow down to them or worship before them, because I am the Lord your God, a jealous God who takes vengeance, who zealously takes vengeance on the wicked, on rebellious sons to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. When the sons continue sinning after their fathers, I call them those who hate me. 6 But I keep mercy and goodness for thousands of generations, for the righteous who love him and for those who keep my commandments.
Date: 300–1000 CE (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 ..."
Edward M. Cook, “The Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in the Targums,” in A Companion to Biblical Interpretation in Early Judaism, ed. Matthias Henze (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), 92–117.
* 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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