Sins Of The Fathers

Videamus nunc et quod sequitur, quomodo reddit dicuntur peccata patrum in filios, in tertiam et quartam progeniem. In hoc enim sermone solent nos haeretici suggilare, quod non sit boni Dei sermo, qui pro peccatis alterius alium plecti dicat. Sed secundum ipsorum rationem, qui Deum legis mandantem haec licet non bonum, justum tamen dicunt, ne ipsi quidem possunt ostendere, quomodo secundum sensum suum justitiae suae convenire videatur, si alius alio peccante puniatur. Superest igitur ut Dominum deprecemur, ut ostendat nobis quomodo praecepta haec justo bonoque conveniant Deo. Saepe jam diximus, quod Scripturae divina non omnia ad exteriorem hominem, sed perplura ad interiorem loquuntur. Interior igitur homo noster aut Deum dicitur habere patrem, si secundum Deum vivit, et quae Dei sunt agit; aut diabolum, si in peccatis sit, et voluntates illius gerat: sicut evidenter in Evangeliis Salvator ostendit, cum dicit: Vos de patre diabolo estis, et desideria patris vestri facere vultis. Ille homicida fuit ab initio, et in veritate non stetit. Sicut ergo semen Dei in nobis dicitur manere, cum verbum Dei servantes in nobis non peccamus, ut Joannes dicit: Qui autem ex Deo est, non peccat, quia semen Dei manet in eo; ita etiam cum a diabolo ad peccandum suademur, semen ejus suscipimus. Cum vero opere etiam implemus, tunc iam et genuit nos. Nascimur enim ei filii per peccatum. Verum quia peccantes vix fere accidit ut sine adjutore peccemus, sed aut ministros peccati, aut adjutores peccemus, verbi causa, si adulterium quis molitur, non potest hoc solus admittere, sed necesse est etiam adulteram consortem fieri sociamque peccati; tunc praetera etsi non plures, esse tamen necesse est aliquem vel aliquam in ministeriis ad societatem peccati, qui omnes velut unus ex altero secundum persuasionis ordinem generati ex patre diabolo noxiae nativitatis progeniem ducunt. Et ut ad ea quae scripta sunt veniamus, Dominus majestatis Jesus Christus Salvator noster crucifixus est. Hujus piaculi auctor et pater sceleris sine dubio diabolus est. Sic enim scriptum est: Cum autem introisset diabolus in cor Judae Iscariotis, ut traderet eum. Pater ergo peccati diabolus est. Iste in hoc scelere primum filium generat Judam, sed solus hoc Judas implere non poterat. Quid ergo scriptum est? Abiit, inquit, Judas ad Scribas et Pharisaeos, et ad Pontifices, dicens eis: Quid mihi datis, et ego vobis eum tradam? Nascitur ergo ex Juda generatio tertia et quarta peccati. Et hunc ordinem deprehendere poteris etiam in singulus quibusque peccatis. Nunc ergo videamus secundum hanc quam diximus progeniem, quomodo Deus peccata patrum reddat in filios, et in tertiam et in quartam progeniem, et in ipsos non reddat patres. Nihil enim de patribus dixit Deus. Diabolus ergo qui peccandi jam modum excessit, sicut propheta dicit, quemadmodum vestimentum in sanguine concretum, non erit mundum, ita et ipse non erit mundus in hoc saeculo, neque corripitur pro peccato neque flagellatur: omnia namque ei servata sunt in futurum. Unde et ipse sciens sibi illud statutum esse tempus poenarum dicebat ad salvatorem: Quare venisti ante tempus torquere nos? Dum ergo stat hic mundus, peccata sua non recipit diabolus, qui est peccantium pater. Redduntur autem peccata in filios, id est in eos quos genuit per peccatum. Etenim homines in carne positi corripiuntur a Domino, verberantur, flagellantur. Non enim vult Dominus mortem peccatoris, sed ut revertantur, et vivat. Et propterea benignus et misericors Dominus reddit peccata patrum in filios, ut quondam patres, id est diabolus et angeli eius, caeterique principes mundi hujus et rectores tenebrarum harum, et ipsi enim efficiuntur patres peccati, sicut et diabolus, quoniam, inquam, patres indigni sunt qui in hoc saeculo corripiantur, sed in futuro recipient quae merentur, filii eorum, id est, quos peccare persuaserint, et qui nihilominus per ipsos asciti fuerunt ad consortium societatemque peccati, hic recipiant quae gesserunt, ut purgatiores ad futurum saeculum pergant et ultra diabolo socii non efficiantur in poena. Quia ergo misericors est Dominus, et omnes homines vult salvos fieri, propterea dicit: Visitabo in virga ferrea facinora eorum, et in flagellis peccata eorum. Misericordiam autem meam non auferam ab eis. Origenes, In Exodo, Homilia VIII Source: Migne PG 12.358d-359

Let us see now what follows, how the sins of the father are said to be returned to the sons, even to the third and fourth generation. 1 With this passage heretics are accustomed to insult us, that it cannot be the word of a good God who says that for the sins of one he punishes another. For according to their reasoning, with God commanding what is not good, they who yet call Him just are not able to demonstrate how, according to their mind, it seems to befit justice that a man is punished for the sin of another. It remains, then, for us to pray to the Lord, that He show to us how this teaching can befit a good and just God. Often we have said that the divine things of Scripture are not all spoken to the exterior man but far more to the interior man. Therefore the interior man is said to have God for his father if he lives according to God, and he does the things of God, or he has the devil for a father if he is in sin, and he performs his will, as is openly shown in the Gospel of the Saviour, when He says, 'You are from your father the devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and he did not stand in the truth.' 2 So the seed of God is said to remain in us, when attending to the word of God in us we do not sin, as John says, 'He who is from God, does not sin, because the seed of God abides in him.' 3 Thus when the devil persuades us to sin, we receive his seed. When however we fulfil his work, then he gives birth to us. We are born as his sons through sin. Truly because it scarcely happens that we sin without a helper, we require either servants or associates in sin. For the sake of example, when a man commits adultery, it is not possible he does it alone, but it is necessary he has a companion and associate for the sin, and then even if it is not many, yet it is necessary there is someone to serve as associate in sin, who all one from the other, according to the order of persuasion, lead to the generation from the father the devil of the offspring of a vile nativity. And that to these things written we may come, our Lord Jesus Christ and Saviour was crucified. The author of this sin and crime was undoubtedly the devil. For so it is written, 'Then the devil entered into the heart of Judas Iscariot, that he betray Him.' 4 The devil, then, is the father of sin. He by that crime generated his first son Judas, Judas alone was not able to do this. What, then, is written? 'Judas went out,' it is said, 'to the Scribes and Pharisees and to the High Priests, saying to them: 'What will you give me that I hand him over to you?' 5 Thus there is born from Judas the third and fourth generation of sin. And this order you can grasp in each sin. Now, therefore, let us see according to the offspring we have spoken about, how God returns the sins of the fathers to the sons, even to the third and fourth generation, and He does not return it to the fathers themselves. For God says nothing about the fathers. The devil, therefore, has already excelled on the way of sin, as the prophet says, 'as a vestment hardened with blood, he shall not be clean,' 6 so he shall not be clean in this world, he shall not be corrected nor whipped, for everything is reserved for him in the future. Whence even he, aware of the situation regarding the time of punishment, says to the Saviour: 'Why do you come before the time to torment us?' 7 While, then, this world exists, the devil does not receive his sins, he who is the father of sinners. But the sins are returned to the sons, that is, to those he birthed through sin. Indeed men in the flesh are corrected by the Lord, they receive blows, they are whipped. For the Lord does not wish the death of sinners, but that they turn and live. 8 On account of this the kind and merciful Lord returns the sins of the fathers to the sons, because the one-time fathers, that is, the devil and his angels, and the other princes of this world, and the powers of this darkness, 9 (for even they are made fathers of sin, just like the devil,) because, I say, the fathers are unworthy of correction in this world but in the future shall receive what they deserve, their sons, that is, those they have persuaded to sin, and those others who were associated with them as companions and associates of sin, here they receive what they have done, that purified they may go forward to the future age and not be made associates of the devil in punishment. Because, therefore, the Lord is merciful, and He wishes to save all men, 10 so He says: 'I shall visit their crimes with an iron rod and their sins with whips. For my mercy shall not be taken from them.' 11 Origen, On Exodus, from Homily 8 1 Exod 20.5 2 Jn 3.44 3 1 Jn 3.9 4 Jn 13.2 5 Mt 26.14-15 6 Isaiah 9.5 7 Mt 8.29 8 Ezek 33.11 9 Ephes 6.12 10 Tim 2.4 11 Ps 89.32