So far, then, as the language of OT is con- cerned, we have not convincing evidence that the story of the Fall as given in Gn 3 was much in the thoughts of the sacred writers. But were we to conclude, therefore, that the doctrine of a Fall formed no part of their religious beliefs, we should be seriously mistaken. If there is one idea which is throughout conspicuous in OT, it is the idea of sin. No other nation of antiquity was possessed with so intense a consciousness of the wickedness of man- kind, and of the sin of man as an offence against God. ' Behold, I was shapen in iniquity ; and in sin did my mother conceive me' (Ps 51'). 'There is none that doeth good, no, not one ' (Ps 14"). These and many similar passages express the abiding sense of the Hebrew race, that man, as he is, is not in the condition which his Creator purposed for him. The contrast between such a conception of man and that, e.g., present to the mind of a Greek, who viewed man as in his normal, healthy state, is only to be accounted for by a belief such as that which is presupposed and taught in the story of the Fall.
That this belief was, as a matter of fact, defi- nitely, if not consistently, connected with the Paradi.se narrative in the later ages of Hebrew national life, is proved by the testimony of the books called Apocrypha and the literature of the Roman period. This testimony is so important that it will be well to present it in some detail.
(a) It is unnecessary to multiply passages which speak of the deprarity of human nature ; but 2 Es 4" ' How can he that is already worn out with the corrupted world understand incorruption? ' is significant. Cf. also 2 Es 7'^.
(b) This depravity was traced to Adam's fall. The classical passage is 2 Es 3'-'- ^. The seer ha«
• It may be ob9er\'ed that the temptation of the Second Adan by the devil (.Mt 4. Lk 4) exr'ains beyond doubt who was u ider stood by the serpent which 'tempted the first Adam.
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been speakin;^ of the creation of Adam, his d-nell- Ing in Paradise, the one coiiiinandment wliich he transgressed, and the coiiso<iuent entrance of death into the world. He pes on : ' For the first Adam, bearing a wicked heart, transgressed, and was overcome ; and not he only, but all they also that are bom of him. Thus disease was made permanent ; and the law was in the heart of the people along with the wickedness of the root ; bo the good departed away, and that whicli was wicked abode still.' Again: 'A grain of evil seed was sown in the heart of Adam from the beginning, and how mu«h wickedness hath it brought forth unto this time I ' (2 Ks 4*'). And once more : ' O thou Adam, what hast thou done ? for though it was thou that sinned, the evil is not fallen on thee alone, but upon all of us that come of thee' (2 Ea 7'"*). In this late book are recog- nized the moral consequences of Adam's sin ; in the much earlier work of Ben-Sira there is an allusion to the curse of Gn 3" ' Great travail is created for every man, and a heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam ' (Sir 40').
(c) That sin came through the woman is ex- plicitly stated in Sir 25-" ' From a woman was the beginning of sin, and because of her we all die.'
(rf) That man's seduction was due to the serpent, now for the first time in Jewish literature identi- fied with Satan, is alluded to in Wis 2-" ' By the envy of the devil death entered into the world.'
(e) The connexion between death and sin is not so clearly conceived, and there was, apparently, no consistent doctrine on the subject ; * but the generally prevailing view seems to have been that of 2 Es 3' ' Unto him thou gavest thy one com- mandment : which he transgressed, and imme- diately thou appointedst doatli for him and in hiB generations.' Cf. also Wis 2^, Sir 25". Tlie same view is found in tlie Apocalypse of Bnruch (xvii. 3, xxiii. 4) and in the Book of Enoch (xcviii. 4).
(/) Side by side with passages such as these we have others not less significant, which assert the personal rcsponsiltility of the sinner. E.g. ' They that inhabited the city did evil, in all things doing as Adam and all his generations had done : for they also bare a wicked heart ' (2 Es 3'^). Cf . also 2 Es 8" and 9", and, above all, Apoc. Baruch liv. 19 : ' Non est ergo Adam causa, nisi animie suie tantum ; nos uero unusquisque fuit aniime Buoe Adam.'
It might be urged that 2 Es ia a very late book, perhaps belonging to Christian times ; but, at all events, that the author of the chapters from which our quotations are drawn was a non-Christian Jew is toleralily certain. And tlius we may use the book in support of our conclusion that the Jews, at least from the Captivity onward, conceived of the sin of Adam as having left a permanent trace from the etl'ecta of which all mankind were suH'er- in^ and to suffer.