ft under His throne of mercy and receiving
his petition for pardon. Thus all mankind might see that none can be so
wicked that he will not find the door of repentance open, if he but seek
it sincerely and persistently.(789) Likewise Adam and Cain, Reuben and
Judah, Korah, Jeroboam, Ahab, Josiah, and Jechoniah are described in
Talmud, Midrash, and the apocalyptic literature as penitent sinners who
obtained at last the coveted pardon.(790) The optimistic spirit of Judaism
cannot tolerate the idea that mortal man is hopelessly lost under the
burden of his sins, or that he need ever lose faith in himself. No one can
sink so low that he cannot find his way back to his heavenly Father by
untiring self-discipline. As the Talmud says, nothing can finally
withstand the power of sincere repentance: "It reaches up to the very seat
of God;" "upon it rests the welfare of the world."(791)

6. The rabbis follow up the idea first announced in the book of Jonah,
that the saving power of repentance applies to the heathen world as well.
Thus they show how God constantly offered time and opportunity to the
heathens for repentance. For example, when the generation of the flood,
the builders of the Tower of Babel, and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah
were to be punished, God waited to give them time for Repentance and
improvement of their ways.(792) Noah, Enoch, and Abraham are represented
as monitors of their contemporaries, warning them, like the prophets, to
repent in time lest they meet their doom.(793) Thus the whole Hellenistic
literature of propaganda, especially the Sibylline books, echoes the
warning and the hope that the heathen should repent of their grievous sins
and return to God, whom they had deserted in idolatry, so that they might
escape the impending doom of the last judgment day. According to one
Haggadist,(794) even the Messiah will appear first as a preacher of
repentance, admonishing the heathen nations to be converted to the true
God and repent before Him, lest they fall into perdition. Indeed, it is
said that even Pharaoh and the Egyptians were warned and given time for
repentance before their fate overtook them.

7. Accordingly, the principle of repentance is a universal human one, and
by no means exclusively national, as the Christian theologians represent
it.(795) The sages thus describe Adam as the type of the penitent sinner,
who is granted pardon by God. The "sign" of Cain also was to be a sign for
all sinners,