Deuteronomy 24:16
The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children for the fathers, but every one shall die for his own sin.
Open Deuteronomy 24:16 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Non occidentur patres pro filiis, nec filii pro patribus, sed unusquisque pro peccato suo morietur.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Οὐκ ἀποθανοῦνται πατέρες ὑπὲρ τέκνων, καὶ υἱοὶ οὐκ ἀποθανοῦνται ὑπὲρ πατέρων· ἕκαστος ἐν τῇ ἑαυτοῦ ἁμαρτίᾳ ἀποθανεῖται.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- לֹֽא יוּמְת֤וּ אָבוֹת֙ עַל בָּנִ֔ים וּבָנִ֖ים לֹא יוּמְת֣וּ עַל אָב֑וֹת אִ֥יש בְּחֶטְא֖וֹ יוּמָֽתוּ
Haydock's commentary
Sin. Judges have no right to punish any but those who have transgressed. (Calmet)
God may for reasons known to himself, which cannot be unjust, visit the sins of the fathers upon their children; (Exodus xx. 5) and hence, (Josue vii.) he ordered the family of Achan to be involved in his punishment. Temporal sufferings, or death itself, are not however always a misfortune. They frequently prove a source of inconceivable blessings, Romans v. 3. (Haydock)
The Rabbins understand, that fathers and children are not to be received as witnesses against each other, (Onkelos) which seems foreign to the sense of the present law. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Origen Origen Against Celsus, Chapter XL
Such is our doctrine of punishment; and the inculcation of this doctrine turns many from their sins. But let us see, on the other hand, what is the response given on this subject by the priest of Jupiter or Apollo of whom Celsus speaks. It is this: “The mills of the gods grind slowly.” Another describes punishment as reaching “to children’s children, and to those who came after them.” How much better are those words of Scripture: “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children for the fathers. …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John, John 9.1,2
This He saith not as acquitting them of sins, for He saith not simply, “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents,” but addeth, “that he should have been born blind, but that the Son of God should be glorified in him.” “For both this man hath sinned and his parents, but his blindness proceedeth not from that.” And this He said, not signifying that though this man indeed was not in such case, yet that others had been made blind from such a cause, the sins of their parents, since it cannot be that when one sinneth another should be punished. For if we allow this, we must also allow that he sinned before his birth. As therefore when He declared, “neither hath this man sinned,” He said not that it is possible to sin from one’s very birth, and be punished for it; so when He said, “nor his parents,” He said not that one may be punished for his parents’ sake. …