The transferability of sin: punishing
the innocent for the sins of the guilty

Passages in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament): Deuteronomy to Malachi

Sponsored link.

This section discusses a theme that runs through the entire Bible: that is is moral to punish innocent persons for the sins of the guilty. That is, that guilt can be transferred from the person who did the sin to those who had no involvement in the sin. This theme is in violation of the tenets of every religious that we have studied. Yet it is frequently seen in many biblical stories and thus influences Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i religions.

The following examples of this theme are taken from the book of Deuteronomy through to 1 Chronicles. Examples from first four books of the Hebrew Scriptures (a.k.a. Old Testament), primarily Genesis, and Exodus are listed elsewhere.

Punish the disabled:

Deuteronomy 23:1 states:

"He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD."

"Stones" refers to testicles; privy member refers to penis. It is most unlikely that a person would damage his testicles or cut off his penis. It would have happened either by accident or as a result of a neutering operation intended to produce a eunuch. Thus, this passages discriminates against a person for an event that was probably outside of their control. He was not allowed to enter into the Temple.

Punish illegitimate children:

Deuteronomy 23:2 states:

"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.

The sin of a man and woman who had a child outside of marriage is transferred to the innocent child, the child's children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, great great grandchildren, onto the tenth generation. All are excluded from the Temple.

This verse may have inspired some states and provinces in North America to mark the birth certificates of children born out of wedlock "illegitimate."

Racism or xenophobia:

Deuteronomy 23:3 & 4 states:

"An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD for ever because they met you not with bread and with water in the way, when ye came forth out of Egypt; and because they hired against thee Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse thee.

This is another case where the sins of one generation are transferred to their descendents for ten generations.

However, Deuteronomy 23:7 & 8 offers some leniency to Edomites and Egyptians.:

"Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite; for he is thy brother: thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian; because thou wast a stranger in his land. The children that are begotten of them shall enter into the congregation of the LORD in their third generation.¶

The exclusion only lasts in their case for three generations.

The genocide of the Canaanites and other tribes:

The Israelites invaded Canaan and, under God's instructions, exterminated seven nations in widespread acts of genocide: the Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites,  Hivites, and Jebusites. Some references to the slaughter are:

This latter passage describes how, after the walls of the city of Jericho fell, the soldiers ran into the city, and killed all its inhabitants: elderly men and women, mature men and women, pregnant women, youths, boys, girls, infants and newborns. Their goal was to entirely wipe out the Canaanite culture by exterminating its people.

People of all ages: men, women children, infants and newborns were also killed in the cities of Ai, Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Gezer, Elgon, Hebron, Debir, Hormah, Bashan, and Sisera. They utterly destroyed "the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city." They "left none to remain" alive. (Deuteronomy 2:26-35). ₁

The justification given for this genocide was that the Pagans who inhabited the land worshiped Gods other than Yahweh (a.k.a. Jehovah). Again, what were considered sinful religious acts by the adults were used to justify the slaughter of children, infants and newborns who had not reached the age of accountability.

A soldier's theft:

This story contains two examples of the transfer of sin from a guilty person to innocent people:

"Israel hath sinned, and they have have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff."

God transferred the responsibility for the sin from one soldier -- the thief -- to all of Israel. About 36 soldiers died because of the transgression of one man.

There is no indication in the text that his wife bore any responsibility for the theft, or even had knowledge of the stolen goods. His sons and daughters, of unknown ages, were probably innocent of any crime as well. But again, the sin of their father was transferred to his entire family.

Joshua's army attacked Ai for the second time. While one contingent of soldiers fought with the army of Ai, another group entered Ai, set it on fire, and massacred every human in the town. The king was hanged on a tree.

The Ten Commandments:

There are three different versions of the Decalogue (a.k.a. the Ten Commandments) listed in the Hebrew Scriptures. They are at Exodus 20:2-17, Exodus 34:12-26, and Deuteronomy 5:6-21.

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;" ₁

This commandment describes that God will punish the children, grand-children, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren of a transgressor, even though they did not participate in the sin. They might not have even been alive when their ancestor worshiped another God or bowed down before an image or statue. Yet, they were to be punished.

Genocide of the tribe of Benjamin:

Lost in this story of bloodshed and murder in cold blood is the fact that the only persons guilty of the death of the concubine were some men from Gibeah. When the smoke cleared, thousands of innocent men, women and children from the tribe of Benjamin and from Jabesh-gilead were slaughtered as punishment for the acts of a few men.

Punishing David by killing his infant child:

2 Samuel 11 describes how David arranged for one of his soldiers, Uriah the Hittite, to be killed in a battle. David's motivation was to cover his adulterous affair with Uriah's wife, Bathsheba, during which she had become pregnant. As soon as her period of mourning was finished, she married David.

2 Samuel 12 describes a parable that the prophet Nathan told to David; it closely paralleled the actions of David with Bathsheba. As recorded in 2 Samuel 12:14 to 18, Nathan prophesized that:

"the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. And Nathan departed unto his house. And the LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto David, and it was very sick. David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth. And the elders of his house arose, and went to him, to raise him up from the earth: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them. And it came to pass on the seventh day, that the child died."

God killed the unnamed, innocent, son of David and Bathsheba because of the deeds of David.

Transportation of the Ark of the Covenant:

1 Chronicles 13:7-11 describes that David and his retinue were transporting the Ark of the Covenant on a new cart. This was in violation of God's instructions that the Ark was to be manually carried by priests (Numbers 4:5 & 6; 10:33-36; Psalms 68:1 & 132:8).). They came to the threshing floor of Chidon (according to 1 Chronicles) or of Nachon (according to another account in 2 Samuel). One commentary on the Bible says that either the oxen who were pulling the ark stumbled, or the ark was tilting and about to be upset because of the incline. This situation could have been very serious because the ark could have been seriously damaged or even destroyed by falling off the cart.

"...reacting instinctively, Uzzah put his hand on it to keep it steady." ₂ thus preventing any damage to the Ark. We know little about Uzzah or Uzza as he is called in 1 Chronicles, except that, according to Ezra 2:43-49, he was a Nethinim, a temple servant who performed menial work in the sanctuary. ₃ God took immediate action. He did not punish the individual(s) in leadership positions who were responsible for ordering that the ark be improperly transported. God immediately killed the temple servant Uzzah/Uzza because he had touched the Ark. The guilt of the leaders was transferred to the menial servant.

Again, in modern times, we don't kill people for touching religions objects, particularly if it is an instinctive action, or if it is done to save a precious object from damage. If anyone is to be disciplined or punished, it should be the person or persons responsible for endangering the object, not an individual who saved it.

References:

1. From the King James Version of the Bible.
2. J.D. Douglas, Ed., "New commentary on the whole Bible: Old Testament volume," Tyndale (1991), Page 398.
3. "Nethinim," Bible Encyclopedia, at: http://www.christiananswers.net/