the two
apocalyptic books written after the destruction of the Second Temple, the
Apocalypse of Baruch and the IV Book of Esdras.(674) The incompatibility
of divine love with the sufferings of man and of the Jewish people on
account of the sin of the first man is solved by an appeal to the final
Day of Judgment, and the striking remark is added that, after all, "each
is his own Adam and is held responsible for his own sin." We cannot deny
that these two books contain much that is near the Paulinian view of
original sin. It seems, however, that the Jewish teachers were put on
their guard by the emphasis of this pessimistic dogma by the nascent
Church, and did their best to give a different aspect to the story of the
first sin. Thus they say: "If Adam had but shown repentance, and done
penance after he committed his sin, he would have been spared the death
penalty."(675) Moreover, they actually represent Adam and Eve as patterns
of repentant sinners, who underwent severe penance and thus obtained the
promise of divine mercy and also of final resurrection.(676) Instead of
transmitting the heritage of sin to coming generations, the first man is
for them an example of repentance. So do the Haggadists tell us quite
characteristically that God merely wanted to test the first man by an
insignificant command, so that the first representative of the human race
should show whether he was worthy to enter eternal life in his mortal
garb, as did Enoch and Elijah. As he could not stand the test, he
forfeited the marks of divine rank, his celestial radiance, his gigantic
size, and his power to overcome death.(677) Obviously the Biblical story
was embellished with material from the Persian legend of the fall of Yima
or Djemshid, the first man, from superhuman greatness because of his
sin,(678) but it was always related frankly as a legend, and could never
influence the Jewish conception of the fall of man.

7. Judaism rejects completely the belief in hereditary sin and the
corruption of the flesh. The Biblical verse, "God made man upright; but
they have sought out many inventions,"(679) is explained in the Midrash:
"Upright and just as is God, He made man after His likeness in order that
he might strive after righteousness, and unfold ever more his god-like
nature, but men in their dissensions have marred the divine image."(680)
With reference to another verse in Ecclesiastes:(681) "The dust returneth
unto the earth as it was, and the s