Ancestral sin: Difference between revisions

'''Ancestral sin''', '''generational sin''', or '''ancestral fault''' ({{lang-grc-koi|προπατορικὴ ἁμαρτία}}; {{lang|grc|προπατορικὸν ἁμάρτημα}}; {{lang|grc|προγονικὴ ἁμαρτία}}), is the [[doctrine]] that individuals inherit the [[divine judgement|judgement]] for the [[sin]] of their [[ancestor]]s.<ref name="Smith2014">{{cite web |last1=Smith |first1=Chuck |title=Generational Sin? |url=https://calvarychapel.com/posts/generational-sin |publisher=[[Calvary Chapel]] |access-date=29 April 2021 |language=English |date=17 February 2014}}</ref><ref name="Piper2015">{{cite web |author1=[[John Piper (theologian)|John Piper]] |title=Can My Life Be Plagued by Generational Sins, Hexes, or Curses? |url=https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/can-my-life-be-plagued-by-generational-sins-hexes-or-curses |publisher=[[Desiring God (ministry)|Desiring God]] |access-date=29 April 2021 |language=English |date=3 November 2015}}</ref> It exists primarily as a concept in Mediterranean religions (likee.g. in Christian [[hamartiology]]); generational sin is referenced in the [[Bible]] in {{Bibleverse|Exodus|20:5|KJV}}.<ref name="Johnson2006"/><ref name="GhentChilderston1994">{{cite book |last1=Ghent |first1=Rick |last2=Childerston |first2=Jim |title=Purity & Passion |date=1994 |publisher=Moody Press |isbn=978-0-8024-7130-7 |page=100 |language=English}}</ref>

ClassicalThe classical scholar [[Martin Litchfield West|Martin West]] draws a distinction between an ancestral [[curse]] and an inherited [[guilt (law)|guilt]], [[punishment]], [[adversity]] or [[dysgenics|genetic corruption]].{{sfn|West|1999|p=33f|ps=: "Critics have often spoken of an inherited curse when what they mean is inherited guilt, or some kind of genetic corruption, or persistent but unexplained adversity."}}

The most detailed discussion of the concept is found in [[Proclus]]'s ''De decem dubitationibus circa Providentiam'', a propaedeutic handbook for students at the [[Neoplatonic Academy]] in Athens. Proclus makes clear that the concept is of hallowed antiquity, and making sense of the apparent paradox is presented as a defense of [[ancient Greek religion]]. The main point made is that a city or a family is to be seen as a single living being (''{{Lang|la|animal unum''}}, ''{{Lang|grc-latn|zoion hen''}}) more sacred than any individual human life.{{sfn|RenaudGagné|2013|pp=23–25}}

The doctrine of ancestral fault is similarly presented as a tradition of immemorial antiquity in ancient Greek religion by [[Celsus]] in his ''[[The True Word|True Doctrine]]'', a polemic against Christianity. Celsus is quoted as attributing to "a priest of Apollo or of Zeus" the saying that "the [[mills of the gods]] grind slowly, even to children's children, and to those who are born after them".{{sfn|RenaudGagné|2013|p=60|ps=: "{{lang|grc|Ὀψὲ, φησι, θεῶν ἀλέουσι μύλοι, και Ἐς παίδων παῖδας τοί κεν μετόπισθη γένωνται.}}"}} The idea of [[divine justice]] taking the form of [[collective punishment]] is also ubiquitous in the [[Hebrew Bible]], e.g. the [[Ten Plagues of Egypt]], the destruction of [[Shechem]], etc., and most notably the recurring punishments inflicted on the Israelites for lapsing from [[Yahweh|Yahwism]].{{sfn|BrillKrašovec|1999|p=[https://books.google.com/books/?id=zOd5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA113#v=onepage&q&f=false 113]|ps=. Explicitly in Isaiah 14:21, Exodus 20:5, Exodus 34:6-76–7, Jeremiah 32:18. Krašovec, Jože, ''Reward, punishment, and forgiveness: the thinking and beliefs of ancient Israel in the light of Greek and modern views''}}{{full short|date=December 2019}}

The [[Bible]] speaks of generational sin in {{Bibleverse|Exodus|20:5|KJV}}, which states that "the iniquities of the fathers are visited upon the sons and daughters — untodaughters—unto the third and fourth generation."<ref name="Johnson2006">{{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Selena |title=The Sin of Racism: How to be Set Free |date=2006 |publisher=[[Hamilton Books]] |isbn=978-0-7618-3509-7 |page=104 |language=English}}</ref> This concept implicatesimplies that "unresolved issues get handed down from generation to generation", but that "Jesus is the bondage breaker ... [and] He is able to break the cycle of this curse, but only if we want Him to."<ref name="Johnson2006"/> James Owolagba says that in addition to prayer, frequent [[church attendance]] including regular reception of the [[sacraments]], especially [[Holy Communion]], aids in delivering an individual from generational sin.<ref name="Owolagba2018">{{cite web |last1=Owolagba |first1=James |title=Is Inter-generational curses true? What can be done? |url=https://www.ourladyofpeaceregina.com/uploads/1/3/8/9/13892679/ask_fr_jamesaug_192018_is_inter-generational_curses_true._what_can_be_done..pdf |publisher=Our Lady of Peace Roman Catholic Parish |access-date=2 May 2021 |language=English |date=2018}}</ref>

It was first developed in the 2nd century by [[Irenaeus]], the [[Bishop of Lyons]], in his struggle against [[Gnosticism]].{{sfn|ODCC|2005|p=Original sin}}<ref name="Answers">{{fullcite web short|title=What the Early Church Believed: Original Sin |url=https://www.catholic.com/tract/what-the-early-church-believed-original-sin |publisher=Catholic Answers |access-date=December19 2019May 2024 |language=English |date=2024|quote=But this man... is Adam, if the truth be told, the first-formed man... We, however, are all from him; and as we are from him, we have inherited his title [of sin] (Against Heresies 3:23:2 [inter A.D. 180-190]).}}</ref> Irenaeus contrasted their doctrine with the view that the Fall was a step in the wrong direction by Adam, with whom, Irenaeus believed, his descendants had some solidarity or identity.<ref>J. N. D. Kelly ''Early Christian Doctrines'' (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1978) p. 171, referred to in Daniel L. Akin, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=elzlVK5c3dQC&pg=PA432&dqq=JND+Kelly+#v=onepage&qpg=JND%20Kelly&f=falsePA432 A Theology for the Church]'', p. 433</ref>

Ancestral sin is the object of a Christian doctrine taught by the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Church]] as well as other Eastern Christians. Some identify it as "inclination towards sin, a heritage from the sin of our progenitors".<ref>[http://www.trueorthodoxy.info/spir_on_law_God_02.shtml The Nature of Sin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080908005101/http://www.trueorthodoxy.info/spir_on_law_God_02.shtml |date=2008-09-08 }}; same text also at [http://www.orthodoxphotos.com/readings/law/sin.shtml The Nature of Sin]</ref> But most distinguish it from this tendency that remains even in baptized persons, since ancestral sin "is removed through [[baptism]]".<ref>[http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/exo_thoughts.aspx St Nikodemos the Hagiorite: Exomologetarion]; cf. "Το βάπτισμα ... αποβάλλει την παλαιά φύση της αμαρτίας (το προπατορικό αμάρτημα)" ([http://www.apostoliki-diakonia.gr/GR_MAIN/catehism/theologia_zoi/themata.asp?contents=selides_katixisis/contents_TaIeraMistiria.asp&main=kat010&file=4.4.1.htm Ανδρέα Θεοδώρου: Απαντήσεις σε ερωτήματα δογματικά (εκδ. Αποστολικής Διακονίας, 1997), p. 156-161]).</ref>

St.Saint [[Gregory Palamas]] taught that, as a result of ancestral sin (called "[[original sin]]" in the West), man's image was tarnished, disfigured, as a consequence of Adam's disobedience.<ref>[http://www.constantine-helen.org/Nature%20of%20God.htm A Discussion of the Orthodox Perception of the Nature of God] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090106015237/http://www.constantine-helen.org/Nature%20of%20God.htm |date=January 6, 2009 }}</ref>

With regard to breaking generational curses, clergy of the [[Catholic Charismatic Renewal]] have developed prayers for healing.<ref>{{cite web |title=Prayer for Healing the Family Tree |url=https://scrc.org/convention/2013/downloads/2013_HealingFamilyInstructions.pdf |publisher=[[Catholic Charismatic Renewal|Southern California Renewal Communities]] |access-date=29 April 2021 |language=English |date=2013}}</ref> Roman Catholic priest James Owolagba teaches that [[novena]]s and the reception of the sacraments are indispensable in delivering one from generational sin.<ref name="Owolagba2018"/>

The ''[[Catechism of the Catholic Church]]'', the Greek translation of which uses "{{Lang|grc|προπατορική αμαρτία}}" (literally, "'ancestral sin"') where the [[Latin]] text has "{{Lang|la|peccatum originale}}", states: "Original sin is called 'sin' only in an analogical sense: it is a sin 'contracted' and not 'committed' – a—a state and not an act. Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants."<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1C.HTM Catechism of the Catholic Church, 404-405404–405]</ref> Eastern Orthodox teaching likewise says: "It can be said that while we have not inherited the guilt of Adam's personal sin, because his sin is also of a generic nature, and because the entire human race is possessed of an essential, ontological unity, we participate in it by virtue of our participation in the human race. 'The imparting of Original Sin by means of natural heredity should be understood in terms of the unity of the entire human nature, and of the ''{{Lang|grc-latn|homoousiotitos''}}<ref>The correct word form is ''homoousiotes''; the quoted text erroneously uses its [[Genitive case|genitive]] form ''homoousiotetos'', and confusingly uses an 'i' instead of an 'e' in the penultimate syllable following a mixed [[Romanization of Greek|Greek transliteration scheme]] with both modern and classical elements.</ref> of all men, who, connected by nature, constitute one mystic whole. Inasmuch as human nature is indeed unique and unbreakable, the imparting of sin from the first-born to the entire human race descended from him is rendered explicable: "Explicitly, as from the root, the sickness proceeded to the rest of the tree, Adam being the root who had suffered corruption" (St.Saint [[Cyril of Alexandria]]).{{'"}}<ref>[http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/dogmatics/golubov_rags_of_mortality.htm Archpriest Alexander Golubov: Rags of Mortality: Original Sin and Human Nature] quoting John Karmiris, A Synopsis of the Dogmatic Theology of the Orthodox Catholic Church, trans. from the Greek by the Reverend George Dimopoulos (Scranton, Pa.: Christian Orthodox Edition, 1973), p. 36</ref>

The [[Hebrew Bible]] provides two passages of scripture regarding generational curses:<ref name="sacks">{{cite web |last1=JonathanSacks |first1=SacksJonathan |authorlink1=Jonathan Sacks |title=To the Third and Fourth Generations (Ki Teitse 5775) |url=http://rabbisacks.org/to-the-third-and-fourth-generations-ki-tetzei-5775/ |website=Rabbi Sacks |accessdate=25 April 2020 |date=24 August 2015}}</ref>

{{quote|The Lord, the Lord, compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in loving-kindness and truth …... Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation. |source=[[Exodus 34]]:7}}

The [[Talmud]] rejects the idea that people can be justly punished for another person's sins and Judaism in general upholds the idea of individual responsibility. One interpretation is that, even though there is no moral guilt for descendants, they may be negatively impacted as a consequence of their forebear's actions.<ref name="sacks" />

Hinduism has family curses, elsewhere.<ref name="The Aitareya Brahmanam of the Rigveda, containing the earliest speculations of the Brahmans on the meaning of the sacrificial prayers, and on the origin, performance and sense of the rites of the Vedic religion.">{{Cite web |title=The Aitareya Brahmanam of the Rigveda, containing the earliest speculations of the Brahmans on the meaning of the sacrificial prayers, and on the origin, performance and sense of the rites of the Vedic religion. |year=1922|publisher=Bahadurganj, Allahabad Sudhindra Nath Vasu|url=https://archive.org/stream/aitareyabrahmana04hauguoft#page/320/mode/2up}}</ref>

In [[Greek mythology]], the [[Erinyes]] exacted family curses.<ref name="An Etruscan Cinerary Urn in the Kelsey Museum">{{Cite webjournal |last=Banducci |first=Laura |date=2007 |title=Family Curses in Modern and Ancient History |journal=Bulletin |volume=17 |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/b/bulletinfront/0054307.0017.106/--etruscan-cinerary-urn-in-the-kelsey-museum?g=bulletin;rgn=main;view=fulltext;xc=1}}</ref><ref name="Family Curses in Modern and Ancient History">{{Cite web |date=8 August 2015 |title=Family Curses in Modern and Ancient History |url=http://howtoremovecurse.com/family-curses/}}</ref> Certain dynasties have had tragic occurrences happen upon them.

The House of [[Cadmus]], who established and ruled over the city of [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]], was one such house. After slaying the dragon and establishing Thebes upon the earth that the dragon terrorized, [[Ares]] cursed Cadmus and his descendants because of the dragon's sacredness to Ares. Similarly, after [[Hephaestus]] discovered his wife, [[Aphrodite]], having a sexual affair with [[Ares]], he became enraged and vowed to avenge himself for Aphrodite's infidelity by cursing the lineage of any children that resulted from the affair. Aphrodite later bore a daughter, [[Harmonia]], the wife of Cadmus, from Ares' seed.

Cadmus, annoyed at his accursed life and ill fate, remarked that if the gods were so enamoured of the life of a serpent, he might as well wish that life for himself. Immediately Cadmus began to grow scales and change into a serpent. Harmonia, after realizing the fate of her husband, begged the gods to let her share her husband's fate. Of the [[Theban kings in Greek mythology|House of Cadmus]], many had particularly tragic lives and deaths. For example, King [[Minos]] of [[Crete]]'s wife fall madly in love with the [[Cretan Bull]] and bore the [[Minotaur]]. Minos would later be murdered by his daughters whilst bathing. [[Semele]], the mother of [[Dionysus]] by [[Zeus]], was turned into dust because she glanced upon Zeus’Zeus's true godly form. King [[Laius]] of Thebes was killed by his son, [[Oedipus]]. Oedipus later (unknowingly) marries the queen, his own mother, and becomes king. After finding out he gouges his eyes and exiles himself from Thebes.

Another dynasty that was cursed and was subject to tragic occurrences was the [[Atreus#Mythology of Atreides|House of Atreus]] (also known as the Atreides). The curse begins with [[Tantalus]], a son of Zeus who enjoyed cordial relations with the gods. To test the omniscience of the gods, Tantalus decided to slay his son [[Pelops]] and feed him to the gods as a test of their omniscience. All of the gods, save Demeter, who was too concerned with the [[Persephone#Abduction myth|abduction of her daughter Persephone]] by [[Hades]], knew not to eat from Pelops’Pelops's cooked corpse. After Demeter had eaten Pelops’Pelops's shoulder, the gods banished Tantalus into [[Tartarus]] where he would spend eternity standing in a pool of water beneath a fruit-bearing tree with low branches. Whenever he would reach for a fruit, the branches would lift upward so as to remove his intended meal from his grasp. Whenever he would bend over to drink from the pool, the water would recedes into the earth before he could drink. The gods brought Pelops back to life, replacing the bone in his shoulder with a bit of ivory with the help of Hephaestus, thus marking the family forever afterwards.

Pelops would later marry Princess Hippodamia after winning a chariot race against her father, King [[Oenomaus]]. Pelops won the race by sabotaging of King Oenomaus’ chariot, with the help of the king's servant, [[Myrtilus]]. This resulted in King Oenomaus’Oenomaus’s death. Later, the servant Myrtilus, who was in love with Hippodamia, was killed by Pelops because Pelops had promised Myrtilus the right to take Hippodamia's virginity in exchange for his help in sabotaging the king's chariot. As Myrtilus died, he cursed Pelops and his line, further adding to the curse on the House of Atreus.

King Atreus, the son of Pelops and the namesake of the Atreidies, would later be killed by his nephew, [[Aegisthus]]. Before his death, Atreus had two sons, King [[Agamemnon]] of [[Mycenae]] and King [[Menelaus]] of [[Sparta]]. King Menelaus’Menelaus's wife, [[Helen of Troy|Helen of Sparta]], would leave him for Prince [[Paris of Troy]], thus beginning the [[Trojan War]]. However, prior to their sailing off for the war, Agamemnon had angered the goddess [[Artemis]] by killing one of her sacred deer. As Agamemnon prepared to sail to Troy to avenge his brother's shame, Artemis stilled the winds so that the Greek fleet could not sail. The [[Divination|seer]] [[Calchas]] told Agamemnon that if he wanted to appease Artemis and sail to [[Troy]], he would have to sacrifice the most precious thing in his possession. Agamemnon sent word home for his daughter [[Iphigenia]] to come to him so that he may sacrifice her, framing it to her that she was to be married to Achilles. Iphigenia, honored by her father's asking her to join him in the war, complied. Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter and went off to war.

| orig-year = 1956

| quote = The recurring theme of the great Greek tragedians [...] is ancestral sin [...]. Man is caught between the inescapable tribal duties and the dawning awareness of free, individual morality. And with this the great theme of Greek man is given; it was carried further by Greek philosophy -– the struggle for assertion of human individuality [...].

[[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] felt that his family was cursed, duebecause toof the actions of two of his ancestors, [[John Hathorne]] and his father [[William Hathorne|William]]. William Hathorne was a [[judge]] who earned a reputation for cruelly persecuting [[Quakers|Quaker Christians]], and who in 1662, he ordered the public [[whip]]ping of Ann Coleman. John Hathorne was one of the leading judges in the [[Salem witch trials]]. He is not known to have repented for his actions. So great were Nathaniel Hawthorne's feelings of guilt, he re-spelled his last name ''Hathorne'' to ''Hawthorne''.<ref name="The Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne">{{Cite web |last=Brooks |first=Rebecca Beatrice |date=September 15, 2011 |title=The Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne |url=https://historyofmassachusetts.org/nathaniel-hawthorne/}}</ref>

[[File:JFK limousine.png|right|thumb|300px|John Fitzgerald Kennedy, with his wife, Jacqueline, and [[List of governors of Texas|Texas Governor]] [[John Connally]] with his wife, Nellie, in the [[Presidential state car (United States)|presidential limousine]], minutes before Kennedy was assassinated. ASome familyallege there may be a [[Kennedy curse,|curse oron justthe badKennedy decisions?family]].<ref name="Kennedy curse">{{Cite web |last=Carroll |first=Robert |date=December 19, 2013 |title=Kennedy curse |url=http://skepdic.com/kennedycurse.html |access-date=2020-06-14 |website=skepdic.com}}</ref>]]

* The [[Curse of Tippecanoe]],; not quite a family curse, as it relates to occupational succession, not genetic, but deserves mention

* The [[SedgwickDangbar familyFamily]]

* The Familyfamily of [[Bruce Lee]], also known as "The Curse of the Dragon" ([[Bruce Lee]] and [[Brandon Lee]])

In [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s ''[[The Hound of the Baskervilles]]'', thereit was athought feelingthat the Baskerville's family had a legendary family curse, of a giant black [[hound]], "... a foul thing, a great, black beast, shaped like a hound, yet larger than any hound that ever mortal eye has rested upon."<ref name="The Hound of the Baskervilles">{{Cite web |title=The Hound of the Baskervilles |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/hound-baskervilles}}</ref><ref name="The Hound of the Baskervilles Sir Arthur Conan DOYLE (1859 - 1930)">{{Cite web |title=The Hound of the Baskervilles Sir Arthur Conan DOYLE (1859 - 19301859–1930) |url=https://librivox.org/the-hound-of-the-baskervilles-by-arthur-conan-doyle/}}</ref>

In the 2007 South Korean psychological-supernatural suspense horror film ''[[Someone Behind You]]'', a young woman named Ga-In (Yoon-Jin-seo) sees families and friends slaughtering and attacking one another and realizes that she is followed by an unexplainableinexplicable curse causing those around her to get rid of her. Despite all of this she is constantly reminded by an eerie student to never to trust her family, her friends, and notor even herself. Ga-In has hallucinations of those who would attempt to attack her, then sees a disturbing vision of a monstrous being warning her that the bloodshed will intensify. The film was also released in America retitled as ''Voices''.<ref name="Dreadcentral">{{Cite web |last=Barton |first=Steve |title=Voices (2009) |date=26 March 2009 |url=https://www.dreadcentral.com/reviews/10990/voices-2009/}}</ref>{{Relevance inline|discuss=Does this related to a family curse?|date=September 2022}}

* [[HamartiologyJewish deicide]]

* {{cite book |last=Gagné |first=Renaud |date=2013 |title=Ancestral Fault in Ancient Greece|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fbn1AAAAQBAJ|year=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-107-03980-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fbn1AAAAQBAJ}}

* [https://pccweb.ca/knoxglenarm/sermons/the-message-how-to-break-a-generational-curse/ How to Break a Generational Curse -– Knox Presbyterian Church] ([[Presbyterian Church in Canada]])

* [https://www.crosswindsinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Breaking-Generational-Curses.pdf Prayers for Breaking Generational Curses -– Crosswinds International Ministries] (Nondenominational Christianity)

* [https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/15/us/kennedy-family-curse/index.html Inside the Kennedy family 'curse' -– CNN]

* [https://www.mirror.co.uk/travel/news/inside-cursed-monaco-royal-family-22144360 Inside the 'cursed' Monaco Royal family -– Mirror]

* [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/04/06/ted-kennedy-spoke-of-a-family-curse-after-chappaquiddick-he-had-good-reason/ Ted Kennedy spoke of a family curse after Chappaquiddick. He had good reason. -– The Washington Post]