Excerpt from The Sources of the Doctrines of the Fall and Original Sin N the preface to my recently published Hulsean Lectures on T fie Origin and Propagation of 5132, which treated the subject described by their title critically and inductively, it was stated that the results of a historical study, then not completed, of the sources and development of the doctrines of the Fall and Original Sin, were inevitably presupposed throughout that work. These results are now placed before the reader. The purpose which their publication is hoped to fulfil is twofold. In the first place, such a historical inquiry as is here undertaken furnishes one criterion amongst others as to the validity and finality of the doctrines previously criticised and restated; and thus the present work embodies an argu ment supplementary to those offered in the Hakeem Lectures. Secondly, it is hoped that some small service may be rendered to the student of doctrine by collecting together, into small compass, the literature, both ancient and modern, dealing with the sources of the Hebrew Fall-story and with' the growth, from that narrative, of the Jewish and Christian theories concerning the origin and diffusion of human sinful ness. This hope is the more confidently entertained, partly on account of the fact that no complete history of the earlier growth of the doctrines of the Fall and Original Sin has previously been supplied, and partly because the inquiry prosecuted in this volume has been allowed to assume moreminuteness and exhaustiveness than was perhaps necessary for the purpose of merely furnishing an argument supple mentary to such as were elaborated in a former work. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.