however, satisfactory; none really gave the answer to the problem that was constantly presenting itself; if, for a moment, the con- tention was put forth that man himself originated sin, a very little thought showed that this, too, was untenable, for the very nature of the “evil tendency” forbade the idea that man could have created it. Therefore, at a very early period, comparatively speaking, the teaching which afterwards became crystallised in Rabbinical writings, must have been put forth,—the logical, if dangerous, doctrine, that God, as the Creator of all things, must have also created the Yetser hara‘, the “evil tendency” ; thus in Bereshith Rabba, ο. 27, it is definitely stated that God created the Yetser hara‘; in Yalkut Shim. Beresh., 44-47, the Almighty is made to say: “1 grieve that I created man of earthly substance ; for had I created him of heavenly substance he would not have rebelled against me”; again ibid. 61: “It repenteth me that | created the Yetser hara‘ in man, for had I not done this he would not have rebelled against me’; and in Kiddushin, 30b, we read: “1 created an evil tendency (Yetser ra‘). I created for him (1.ε., for man, in order to counteract this) the Law as a means of healing. If ye occupy yourselves with the Law, ye will not fall into the power of it (1.6., the Yetser ra‘). Once more, according to Bammidbar Rabba, c. 22, we are told of how God created the good and the evil tendencies: the former was placed in man’s right side, the latter in his left side. In other passages it is pointed out that the Yetser tob is Wisdom and Knowledge of the Law (Weber, Fiidische Theologie, Ὁ. 218). The danger of such a doctrine is obvious, a danger which could not be more vividly illustrated than in the words of St. Paul, Rom. vii. 15-24: “ . . . but if what I would not, that I do, I consent unto the Law that it is good. So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. . . . but if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me, . . . ”; that teaching like this, taken with the belief that the evil tendency was created by God, would be perverted was almost inevitable; it was the existence of such perversions which must have called forth the words in i. 15 {. of our Epistle: “ Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempteth no man... ”; then, possibly, the words in verse 17 of the same chapter, ‘‘ Every good gift and every perfect boon is from above...” refer to the Yetser ha-tob, and are intended to exclude the belief that the Yetser hara‘, whereby men were tempted, came from God.
(ii.) The $ewish Doctrine of Works.—There are, according to