ith
Satan, the arch-fiend, and later with evil in general, the _yezer ha
ra_.(663) Thus the belief arose that the poisonous breath of the serpent
infected all generations, causing death even of the sinless.(664) The
apocrypha also held that the envy of Satan brought death into the
world.(665) This prepared for the dismal church doctrine of original sin,
the basis of Paul's teachings, which demanded a blood atonement for
curse-laden humanity, and found it after the pagan pattern in the
vicarious sacrifice of a dying god.(666)

Against such perversion of the simple Paradise story the sound common
sense of the Jewish people rebelled. While the early Talmudists
occasionally mention the poisoning of the human race by the serpent, they
find an antidote for the Jewish people in the covenant with Abraham or
that of Sinai.(667) One cannot, however, discern the least indication of
belief in original sin, either as inherent in the human race or inherited
by them. Nor does the liturgy express any such idea, especially for the
Day of Penitence, when it would certainly be mentioned if the conception
found any place in Jewish doctrine. On the contrary, the prevailing
thought of Judaism is that of Deuteronomy and Ezekiel,(668) that "Each man
dies by his own sin," that every soul must bear only the consequences of
his own deeds. The rabbis even state that no man dies unless he has
brought it upon himself by his own sin, and mention especially certain
exceptions to this rule, such as the four saintly men who died without
sin,(669) or certain children whose death was due to the sin of their
parents.(670) They could never admit that the whole human race was so
corrupted by the sin of the first man that it is still in a state of
sinfulness.

6. Of course, the rabbinical schools took literally the Biblical story of
the fall of man and laid the chief blame upon woman, who fell a prey to
the wiles of the serpent. This is done even by Ben Sira, who says: "With
woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all must die."(671) So
the Talmud says that due to woman, man, the crown, light, and life of
creation, lost his purity, his luster, and his immortality.(672) The
Biblical verse, "They did eat, and the eyes of them both were opened," is
interpreted by Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai and Rabbi Akiba as "They saw the
dire consequences of their sin upon all coming generations."(673) The fall
of man is treated most elaborately in the same spirit in