Heredity
Summary
The passing of characteristics from parents to children—the offspring tending to resemble the parents—is observed in Scripture both biologically and in patterns of generational consequence and individual accountability.
☩Generational Consequences
Scripture teaches that God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of those who hate Him, while showing mercy to thousands who love Him and keep His commandments (Exodus 20:5-6). The Lord is longsuffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, yet by no means clearing the guilty (Numbers 14:18; Exodus 34:7). Jeremiah 32:18 echoes this: God repays the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them.
☩Individual Accountability
Jeremiah 31:29-30 announces a decisive turn: '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.' Ezekiel 18:2-20 develops this at length: the soul that sins is the one that shall die; the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor the father the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. Each person bears their own guilt before God.
☩Original Sin and New Birth
The Psalmist confesses, 'Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me' (Psalm 51:5). Paul teaches that through Adam sin entered the world and death through sin, so death spread to all because all sinned (Romans 5:12). In Adam all die (1 Corinthians 15:22). We were by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). Jesus tells Nicodemus, 'That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Ye must be born again' (John 3:6-7). The biblical witness thus acknowledges hereditary patterns both in Adam's race and in the need for spiritual rebirth.