Inherited Guilt

Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel communicated that the old proverb, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, / And the children’s teeth are set on edge,” giving credence to the idea of inherited guilt, was not to be used any longer in Israel, but rather “every one shall die for his own iniquity [sin]; every man who eats the sour grapes, his [own] teeth shall be set on edge” (JEREMIAH 31:29-30; EZEKIEL 18:2-3). Speaking of the pendulum, Poe’s narrator says he forced himself “to ponder upon the sound of the crescent as it should pass across the garment – upon the peculiar thrilling sensation which the friction of cloth produces on the nerves. I pondered upon all this frivolity until my teeth were on edge.”