Ethiopic Didascalia

Ethiopic Didascalia — Platt English translation page 33

father ; he shall surely live : but his father, because he committed violence and wrong, and plundered and oppressed, and did that which ought not to be done in the midst of my people, he shall die in his transgression. Yet ye say. How is it that the son is recompensed for the sin of his father ? But if the son be righteous, and shew mercy, and keep all my Law, he shall surely live ; and the soul that sinneth, it shall die. For the son shall not be recompensed for the sin of his father : the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the sin of the sinner shall be upon him. And if the sinner turn from all the sin that he hath done, and keep all my Law and Commandments, and do righteousness and shew mercy, he shall surely live, he shall not die : all his sin that he hath done will I not remember unto him, but in his righteousness that he hath done shall he live. Do I at all desire that the sinner should die, saith the I^ord, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live ? But if the righteous man turn from his righteousness and commit sin, in his transgression that he hath committed shall he die ; and all his righteous- ness that he hath done I will not remember unto him, but in his sin that he hath sinned, in it shall he die. Yet ye say, It is not just. When the righteous man turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity, in his trans- gression that he hath done he shall die. And if the sinner turn from his sin that he hath committed, and do that which is just and right, he that doeth thus hath saved his soul : he hath seen and turned from all his sin that he F 33