Section Nine

Third and Fourth

Generations

Can children be held responsible for the sins or wrongs of their parents (or indeed any ancestor)? Some verses suggest that punishment can be passed on, each using the phrase ‘third and fourth generations’. 1. God is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, forgiving. Yet the guilty are to be punished - including the children and their children to the third and fourth generations. 2. God is slow to anger, loving and forgiving. Again, the guilty are punished; including the children to the third and fourth generation. 3. Part of the ten commandments. A command not to create and worship idols, because God is jealous. Again, he punishes children to the third and fourth generations for the sins of the parents. It is posible that the phrase ‘third and fourth generation’ refers to households. It would have been usual to find three and four generations of the same family alive at the same time and living in the same household. It is worth setting these verses in their context. All these passages also talk about God’s abundant love and forgiveness. Deuteronomy and Exodus talk of God showing love to a ‘thousand generations’.