In the mid-first century AD, St. Paul wrote some hugely influential words about Adam, the Fall, and original sin. As I have argued, these ideas seem at variance with earlier Biblical traditions and Jewish thought, in which Adam’s story made little impact. Around Paul’s time, though, that saga was attracting increasing interest. Paul, oddly, was riding a fashionable wave.
Early in the second century BC, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) claimed, surprisingly, that “Adam [was honored] above every living being in the creation.” Over the following centuries, Adam became a literary superstar, the leading character in several important works, and the alleged author of others.
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