According to the Bible, are we punished for the sins of others?

Question

These verses say wer're not
Deuteronomy 24:16
The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.

2 Kings 14:6
But the children of the murderers he slew not: according unto that which is written in the book of the law of Moses, wherein the LORD commanded, saying, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin.

Jeremiah 31:29-30
In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity.

Ezekiel18:20
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

But in these following verser we are

Genesis 9:21-25
And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father .... And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan [Ham's son]; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

Exodus 20:5 , Deuteronomy 5:9
I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

Exodus 34:7
Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children unto the third and to the fourth generation.

Numbers 14:18
Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

Deuteronomy 23:2
A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD.

Deuteronomy 28:18
Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body.

1 Samuel 3:12-13
I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house ... I will judge his house for ever ... because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.

2 Samuel 12:14
The child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.

2 Samuel 21:6-9
Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD .... And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the LORD.

1 Kings 2:33
Their blood shall therefore return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his seed for ever.

1 Kings 11:11-12
Wherefore the LORD said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant. Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy father's sake: but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son.

1 Kings 21:29
Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house.

2 Kings 5:27
The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever.

Isaiah 14:21
Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers.

Jeremiah 16:10-11
Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? ... Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the Lord.

Jeremiah 29:32
Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed.

Jeremiah 32:18
Thou ... recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them.

Zephaniah 1:8
I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.


Why does the bible contradict itself????

Answer 1

Parts were written over Centuries. Some were cribbed from other religions. Some parts were written as war propaganda, others to foster peace in a conquered region. So what it says, depends on what the authors wanted to do.

you want to invade another country for it's resources, demonise those who live there as murderers and child killers. you want people to exist peacefully, extole the virtues of turning the other cheek.

Just depends on what you want. Bush and Blair wanted the oil in Iraq, make Saddam, the one time friend of both US and UK, a bad man. You want a country to help you prevent a war, make nice comments about how helpful they are, like Bush and Blair did with Syria.

See, it is all propaganda and written by the best spin doctors of the time.

Answer 2

Oh, this is only one of several examples of the Bible contradicting itself. Does this mean it's wrong? No! Heck, I'm aware of this and I'm a Christian.

One thing to observe is how many of those verses you listed are from the Old Testament and the New. One thing I've noticed about the Old is that it's oftentimes done in a very storybook-like way. People back then were far more simple-minded and therefore, needed easier means of getting taught lessons (look at the book of Job. Personally, I don't believe anything in Job ACTUALLY happened - it's a parable). Because of this, they might have been taught by way of story that "if you commit a sin, your children will suffer for it too!", that would be more convincing for them not to do than "Do it and you'll be in trouble".

Now, I know this doesn't COMPLETELY diminish the contradictions, but you also have to keep in mind that the Bible was translated from several other languages, and therefore, miscommunicated words are not uncommon. For instance, "Aloha" (in Hawaiian, or whatever the proper name for the Hawaiian language is) means both hello and goodbye. Now, if "Jesus said, "Aloha"" had been written in the original Bible and then translated, it would be up to the translator to say whether Jesus was saying Hi or Goodbye. A crumby example, I know, but you catch my drift.

It seems to me that for the most part, the Bible teaches that we are accountable for our sins and only our sins. Now, perhaps the sins of our parents may make it easier for us to sin, we still have that choice... it's just an unfair (but no one ever said life is fair) weight that we're forced to bear.

Answer 3

The Bible is not contradicting itself, you are not reading in total context.
All your quotes are out of the old testament. The ways of the cultures, politics, development of God's relationship with his people who had been influenced by years of slavery and exposure to other cultures were different then after Christ came. Christ was the fullfilment of the old testament and the old ways were put away. Christs birth became an age of loving God that can forgive all sin, because Christ atoned for all.
I am not a scholor, so I'm sure you will recieve better answers. You may find a more positive answer to your questions, by examining Christs life and his teachings of loving and forgiving God.

Answer 4

You need to read each of those verses in the context they were written in. Every situation was different. There are things that can be passed down through generations that are curses, but the power of those can be broken in the Name of Jesus. Jesus fixed everything when He came to the earth and died for our sins. He's all we need. You should read 'Blessing or Curse: You Decide' by Derek Prince. It talks about generational curses and blessings. It'll help explain everything. The bible is true, you can take it for it's word, God is not a liar, but you do need to read it in context so it makes sense to you. Also, ask the Lord to reveal the truth to you. He would be more than happy to do that for you. He loves you, and wants you to know the truth after all. He didn't die for nothing!!!

Answer 5

The Bible overflows with contradictions--Christianity claims we are all born rotten to the core because of Adam & Eves' "original sin".Hopefully exposing all the blatant contradictions will put a dent is the fundies wall of ignorance.Keep up the good work!!

Answer 6

What a long question. It's so simple to understand heheehe no need for a brainer. Of course we're punish for our own actions...but if a child does something wrong the parents have the responsibly too hehehehe.

Answer 7

OK. Look how the situation is:
We are punished only for our sins..!
The theory with "punishing 3-4-5. future generation " is only a way to scare ppl. We can't commit a sin when we are knowing that ours children's, grand-children's, will be suffering because of us..?? Isn't it true..??This is how I see the things..!

Answer 8

the bible us just a piece of literature and contradicts itself many times over. When i moved to the bible belt, it was fun to find all the contradictions and fight about it with all the bible toters who tried to force their religion on me. they didn't know what to think after i got done!!

Answer 9

Yes. Funny how Christians often ignore what the Bible SAYS or claim it isn't relevant when they don't like it.

Answer 10

Yes.
Silly isn't it?
Makes no sense in the real world, does it?
You'd have to have a coupla screws loose to believe such silliness, wouldn't you?