Reference: Heredity
Hastings
HEREDITY, which may be defined as 'the hereditary transmission of qualities, or even acquirements,' so far as it is a scientific theory, is not anticipated in Holy Scripture. That men are 'made of one' (Ac 17:26 RV) is a fact of experience, which, in common with all literature, the Bible assumes. The unsophisticated are content to argue from like to like, that is, by analogy. But the modern doctrine of heredity, rooted as it is in the science of biology, involves the recognition of a principle or law according to which characters are transmitted from parents to offspring. Of this there is no trace in the Bible. Theology is therefore not directly interested in the differences between Weismann and the older exponents of Evolution.
1. In the OT, which is the basis of the doctrine of the NT, there is no dogmatic purpose, and therefore no attempt to account for the fact that 'all flesh' has 'corrupted his way upon the earth' (Ge 6:12), and that 'there is none that doeth good' (Ps 14:1). A perfectly consistent point of view is not to be expected. Not a philosophical people, the Hebrews start from the obvious fact of the unity of the race in the possession of common flesh and blood (Job 14:1; 15:14), the son being begotten after the image of the father (Ge 5:3; cf. Heb 2:14). This is more especially emphasized in the unity of the race of Abraham, that 'Israel after the flesh' (1Co 10:18), whose were the fathers and the promises (Ro 9:4-5). But the Bible never commits itself to a theory of the generation or procreation of the spirit, which is apparently given by God to each individual (Ge 2:7; 7:22; Job 33:4) constitutes the personality ('life' '/2-Samuel/1/9/type/juliasmith'>2Sa 1:9, 'soul' Nu 5:6), and is withdrawn at death (Ec 12:7). This is the source of Ezekiel's emphasis on individual responsibility (Eze 18:4), a criticism of the proverb concerning sour grapes (v. 2), which was made to rest on an admitted principle of the Mosaic covenant, the visitation upon the children of the fathers' sins (Ex 20:5). This principle involves corporate guilt; which, though sometimes reduced to a pardonable weakness inseparable from flesh (Ps 78:39; 103:14; Job 10:9), and therefore suggestive of heredity, yet, as involving Divine wrath and punishment, cannot be regarded as a palliation of transgression (Ex 34:7; Ps 7:11; Ro 1:18). Sin in the OT is disobedience, a breach of personal relations, needing from God forgiveness (Ex 34:6-7; Isa 43:25); and cannot therefore be explained on the principle of hereditary transmission. Moreover, the unity of Israel is as much one of external status as of physical nature, of the inheritance of the firstborn no less than of community in flesh and blood (Ex 4:22; cf. Ge 25:23; 27:35). Similarly Adam is represented as degraded to a lower status by his sin, as cast out of the garden and begetting children in banishment from God's presence.
2. Such are the materials from which NT theology works out its doctrine of original sin, not a transmitted tendency or bias towards evil, but a submission to the power of the devil which may be predicated of the whole race. [See art. Sin.]
J. G. Simpson.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And Jehovah God will form man of the dust from the earth, and will blow into his nostrils the breath of lives, and man shall be for a living soul.
And Adam shall live thirty and one hundred years, and shall beget in his likeness, according to his image, and will call his name Seth.
And God shall see the earth, and lo, it was corrupted, for all flesh corrupted its way upon the earth.
All which the breath of the spirit of life in the nostrils of all which is in the dry land died.
And Jehovah will say to her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two peoples shall be separated from thy belly: and a people shall be strong above a people, and the great shall serve the small.
And he will say, Thy brother came with deceit and he will take thy blessing.
And say thou to Pharaoh, So said Jehovah, my first-born son is Israel.
Thou shalt not worship to them, and thou shalt not serve them: for I am Jehovah thy God, a jealous God, striking the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and to the fourth, to them hating me;
And Jehovah will pass by before him, and Jehovah will call, Jehovah God merciful and compassionate, deferring anger, and much in kindness and truth, Watching kindness for thousands, taking away iniquity, and transgression and sin, and acquitting, will not cleanse; striking the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons and upon the sons' sons, upon the third and the fourth.
Watching kindness for thousands, taking away iniquity, and transgression and sin, and acquitting, will not cleanse; striking the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons and upon the sons' sons, upon the third and the fourth.
Speak to the sons of Israel, A man or woman when they shall do from any sin Of man to cover a transgression against Jehovah, and that soul transgressed;
And he will say to me, Stand now, upon me, and kill me, for perplexity seized me because my soul is yet all in me.
Remember now, thou didst make me as day; and thou wilt turn me back to dust.
Man being born of woman is short of days and full of disquiet
What is man that he will be clean? and that he will be just, being born of woman?
The spirit of God made me, and the breath of the Almighty will cause me to live.
God judging the just one, and being angry in all the days.
To the overseer; of David. The fool said in his heart, No God. They were corrupted, they made their; works abominable, none doing good.
And he will remember that they are flesh; a spirit going and not turning back.
For he knew our formation; he remembered that we are dust.
And the dust shall turn back to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall turn back to God who gave it.
I, I am he wiping away thy transgressions for my sake, and I will not remember thy sins.
Behold, all souls to me; behold, as the soul of the father, and so the soul of the son, they are to me. The soul sinning, it shall die.
And he made of one blood every nation of men to dwell upon all the face of the earth, having limited the times before arranged, and the bounds of their habitation;
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven upon all profanation and injustice of men, of those detaining the truth in injustice;
Who are Israelites; whose the adoption as a son, and the glory, and covenants, and legislation, and divine worship, and solemn promises; Whose the fathers, and from whom Christ according to the flesh, who being God over all, praised forever. Amen.
See ye Israel according to the flesh: are not they eating the sacrifices mutual participators of the altar?
Since therefore the young children participated in flesh and blood, he also likewise participated with them; that by death he might leave unemployed him having the strength of death, that is, the devil;