The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
World English Bible
This verse is examined in more than one Scripture Analysis section. Each lens is shown on its own terms, in the section's own words; GEBible reaches no verdict of its own.
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The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
World English Bible
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Romans 5:12 has Paul teach that death passed upon all humanity because of Adam's single sin — the archetypal transgenerational punishment. Deuteronomy 24:16, 2 Kings 14:6, Jeremiah 31:29-30, and Ezekiel 18:20 insist the opposite: each person dies for his own sin and no one bears the iniquity of another.
Critical scholarship: Widely regarded as a genuine contradiction.
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Each section sets the viewpoints side by side; you weigh the evidence. Here, "critical scholarship" means academic study, not a value judgment. How this is built →
Within each section, grouped by shared field or question type — not a cross-section comparison.
This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"Deuteronomy 24:16 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/deuteronomy/24/16?version=WEB (retrieved 27 August 2026).