There is no evidence that the teaching of the OT as a whole on the subject of sin was in the slightest degree attected by the narrative in Gn 3, as the instances cited to the contrary disappear on closer scrutiny ; but the universality of man's sin- fulness is asserted as a fact, although no reason for it is offered. It is only when we come to the apocryphal Jewish literature that the story is given the significance of doctrine. Although, as the evidence from this source shows, Jewish theology in the time of Jesus had taken up the question of the origin of sin and death, yet in the teaching of Jesus there is not the faintest echo of Jewish thought upon the subject. His standpoint is that of the OT, although His revelation of God's Father- hood and man's sonship gives to the sin which separates God and man a more tragic import. St. Paul, however, has given a place in his theology to this contemporary Jewish doctrine, and, on account of the light it throws upon his teaching, it wUl be necessary to examine it more closely.
1. The connexion of St. Paul's doctrine with Jewish teaching. — (a) While in the OT we have the beginnings, but only the beginnings, of the later doctrine of Satan (Job P'^ 2'-", the unbeliever in, and slanderer of, man's goodness and godliness ; Zee 3^, the adversary of man to hinder God's grace ; 1 Ch 211, tiie tempter ; cf . 2 S 24^, where it is the Lord who moves David to number the people), yet it is not till Ave come to Wis 2-'* that he is identi- fied with the serpent who tempted Eve: 'But by the envy of the devil death entered into the world., and they that are of his portion make trial thereof.' This identification is assumed in Ro IB"^" and Rev 129 202 and is also implied in Jn 8" (cf. 1 Jn S^-^^).
(b) Woman's share in this tragedy for the race is mentioned in Sir 25^ : ' From a woman was the be- ginning of sin ; and because of her we all die.' Of
this detail of the narrative St. Paul also makes use by way of warning : ' But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his crafti- ness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ ' (2 Co IP). It is not impossible that in this allusion St. Paul has in view the opinion of apocalyptic and Rabbinic writers that the temptation was to un- chastity.
' The thought which pervades this passage is that of conjuaral loyalty and fidelity to one husband, and it is difficult to resist the conclusion to which Everling {Die Paulinische Angelologie M. Ddmoiiologie, 51-57) conies in his able discussion of the pas- sage, that the mention of Eve in this connexion in a clause in- troduced by (OS, makes it necessary to understand the sin into which she was betrayed as similar to that into which the Cor- inthian Church is, figuratively speaking, in danger of falling, namely, unohastity and infidelity to her husband ' (H. St. J. Thaclieray, The Relation of St. Paul to Contemporary Jewish Thought, 1900, p. 62; cf. Tennant, TAe Fall and Original Sin, 1903, p. 251).
If this was St. Paul's belief, it adds force to his argument for woman's subordination in 1 Ti 2'* ' Adam was not beguiled, but the woman being be- guiled hath fallen into transgression.' Here again St. Paul is either echoing, or in accord with, Jewish thought, for in the Slavonic Secret.^ of Enoch, xxxi. 6, we read : 'And on this account he [Satan] con- ceived designs against Adam ; in such a manner he entered [into Paradise] and deceived Eve. But he did not touch Adam' (cf. Tiiackeray, op. cit. pp. 51, 52). Such an opinion would explain the harshness of his tone and the hardness of his dealing with women.
(c) These are, however, subordinate features of the narrative ; but St. Paul is, in his assertion of human depravity, not only in accord with some of the sayings in the OT, but with such explicit teaching as is found in 2 Es 4" ' How can he that is already worn out with the corrupted world understand incorruption,' and 7®^ ' Por all that are born are defiled with iniquities, and are full of sins and laden with offences.' But such a view does not seem to have been universal, for Edersheim says expressly of the teaching of the Talmud : ' So far as their opinions can be gathered from their writings, the great doctrines of Original Sin, and of the sinfulness of onr whole nature, were not held by the ancient Rabbis ''(i^^ 1887, i. 165; cf. Sanday-Headlam, Romans^ [ICC, 1902], p. 137).
(d) INIan's present racial condition is traced back to Adam's fall (irapdirTUfjia ; Wis 10^ ' Wisdom guarded to the end the first formed father of the world, that was created alone, and delivered him out of his own transgression'). The teaching in Ro 512-21 is very fully anticipated in 2 Es S^i- ^ : ' For the first Adam bearing a wicked heart trans- gressed, and was overcome ; and not he only, but all they also that are born of him. Thus disease was made permanent ; and the law was in the heart of the people along with the wickedness of the root ; so the good departed away, and that which was wicked abode still ' ; 4^0 ' For a grain of evil seed was sown in the heart of Adam from the beginning, and how much wickedness hath it brought forth unto this time ! and how much shall it yet bring forth until the time of threshing come ! ' ; 7'^^ '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.' While it is generally assumed that in these passages man's moral corruption in the sense of inherited depravity is traced to Adam's trans- gression as its cause, yet Tennant maintains that the available evidence does not support the view.