Note 546 — LECTURE XI. THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF MORAL EVIL. BY REV. JAMES MARTINEAU.

The first trace of this fiction presents itself in the Apocryphal book of the Wisdom of Solomon, ii. 24; “Nevertheless, through envy of the Devil, came death into the world.” How difficult it appeared, even to the learned and imaginative Origen, to establish this interpretation on any sound scriptural authority, may be seen in the fact, that he can quote in its behalf nothing better than an unknown Jewish work in the Greek language, entitled Ἀνάληψις τοῦ Μωσέως. In Rufinus’s version of Origen’s “Principles,” occurs the following passage: “In Genesi serpens Evam seduxisse describitur; de quo in Ascensione Möysi, cujus libelli meminit in epistolâ suâ Apostolus Judas, Michaël archangelus cum Diabolo disputans de corpore Möysi, ait, a Diabolo inspiratum serpentem, causam exstitisse prævaricationis Adæ et Evæ.”—De Princip. lib. iii. c. 2. Though the learned Father does not hesitate to cite this book, for a theological purpose, he does not inform us of the grounds on which he was satisfied to invest it with divine authority.