Continuing our series of instructive Jewish responses to Christian missionary polemics (see also articles 1 & 2) 

Vicarious Atonement: A Biblical Perspective

Is the idea that an innocent person can be killed instead of those who are guilty consistent with what the Bible teaches? We had a potential occurrence of this in the book of Exodus. After the sin of the Golden Calf, God expressed His intention to destroy the Jewish people. Moses interceded and offered to die in their place. In response, God says,

“Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book!” (Exodus 32:32–33)

Throughout the Bible, God says that one person cannot die for the sins of another:

Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin. (Deuteronomy 24:16, II Kings 14:6)14

But everyone will die for his own sin; each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge. (Jeremiah 31:30)

The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon him. (Ezekiel 18:20)

No man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him. (Psalms 49:8)

So you shall not pollute the land in which you are, for blood pollutes the land and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who has shed it! (Numbers 35:33)

The Torah repeatedly insists that each person is responsible for his or her own sins.15 Although the New Testament book of Romans says that Jesus came to justify the ungodly (4:5), the Jewish bible teaches that “He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, both of them are an abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs 17:15).

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Notes

14 Exodus 34:7 seems to present a problem by teaching that God will recall the sins of parents upon children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation. The Talmud (Brachos 7a) explains that this is speaking only of a situation where the descendants follow in their parents’ path. Some have suggested that since the context of this passage in Exodus is God’s great mercy and kindness in dealing with us, we need to see the recalling of parental sins in a positive light. Along these lines, what might be implied is that when God judges someone, He takes into consideration the sins of their parents and grandparents. Less might be expected of someone who grew up in a home where all they were exposed to were negative examples going all the way back to their great-grandparents. This recalling of ancestral sins as a mitigating factor in how God judges people is an expression of His mercy and beneficence.

15 Some missionaries attempt to prop up and legitimatize their belief in Jesus’s vicarious sacrifice by appealing to rabbinic sources. When we examine these teachings, it becomes clear that the missionaries either misunderstand or intentionally distort them. Here, they cite several passages from the Talmud and Midrash that the death of the righteous can atone for the sins of the nation. There are numerous distinctions between these rabbinic teachings and Christian doctrine.

(a) This Jewish concept is not about the death of only one particular person — it refers to numerous righteous individuals throughout history. Christians may insist that only Jesus was totally sinless, but the Bible plainly teaches that this could not have been the case. See Ecclesiastes 7:20; Job 15:14 and 25:4.

(b) The rabbinic concept doesn’t require that we believe in the righteous individual or even be aware of their death for it to effect atonement. In Christianity, those who don’t believe in Jesus’s atoning death are doomed to eternal damnation. See Mark 16:16, John 3:16. This is a critical distinction. The Jewish concept is an observation about the benevolent economy of God’s providence, and was never meant as a directive about how we are to live our lives. Christianity turned this on its head and made the need for each person to embrace the death of Jesus as the most pressing responsibility in life.

(c) The atonement available through the death of a righteous person is similar to the atoning power of a sacrifice. It doesn’t work magically independent of our actions. Rather, the grief and mourning for the righteous person can be a catalyst toward repentance that can bring reconciliation with God. In Christianity, it is faith in Jesus alone, independent of anything the believer does that brings atonement. See Romans 3:28, Galatians 2:16.

(d) Some of these rabbinic teachings are referring not to the atonement of an individual’s sins, but to the fate of the community as a whole. In the Bible God relates to us both as individuals and as a nation. The sense of the word “atonement” in these passages is referring to the alleviation of national punishment and suffering rather than full exoneration and expiation of sin. The important point here is that rabbinic teachings where God’s calculus of justice takes into account the death of the righteous do not contravene the scriptures cited here maintaining that individuals are each responsible for their own sins.

Quoted from: You Turn! The Jewish Response to a Christian Challenge by Rabbi Michael Skobac. Published by Jews For Judaism.

Categories: Bible, God, Judaism