The next book that calls for notice is 2 Maccabees, on account of its strangely particularistic doctrine of retribution for sin; in vi. 12-16 it is said: “Now I beseech the readers of this book not to be discouraged by such calamities,[330] but to reflect that our people were being punished by way of chastening, and not for their destruction. For indeed it is a mark of great kindness when the impious are not let alone for a long time, but punished at once. In the case of other nations, the Sovereign Lord in His forbearance refrains from punishing them till they have filled up their sins to the full, but in our case He has determined otherwise, that His vengeance may not fall on us in after-days when our sins have reached their height....” The teaching of this subject in 1 (3) Esdras and Baruch is that of the Old Testament; but it is worth mentioning that the doctrine of the merits of the fathers referred to above is expressly repudiated in Baruch ii. 19: “For we do not present our supplication before Thee, O Lord our God, for the righteousness of our fathers, and of our kings”; evidently this doctrine must have been held by some, since it receives such a pointed repudiation. The doctrine of Sin in 2 (4) Esdras is important as it is very fully dealt with; this will require a little more detailed notice, but we can restrict ourselves to the “Salathiel Apocalypse” portion of the book (iii.-x.), as the other parts do not offer anything of importance so far as this subject is concerned. The origin of Sin is traced to Adam, as the following passage (iii. 20-22, 25, 26) will show: “And yet Thou didst not take away from them the evil heart, that Thy Law might bring forth fruit in them. For the first Adam, clothing himself with the evil heart, transgressed, and was overcome; and likewise also all who were born of him. Thus the infirmity became inveterate; the Law indeed was in the heart of the people, but together with the evil germ; so what was good departed, and the evil remained.... And, after this had been done many years, the inhabitants of the city committed sin, in all things doing as Adam and all his generations had done; for they also had clothed themselves with the evil heart.” This teaching occurs more than once; in iv. 30 it is said: “For a grain of evil seed was sown in the heart of Adam from the beginning, and how much fruit of ungodliness hath it produced unto this time, and will yet produce until the threshing-floor come!” And, once more, in vii. 118: “O thou Adam, what hast thou done! For though it was thou who sinned, the fall was not thine alone, but ours also who are thy descendants!” Adam’s fall and sin in man are thus directly connected, but how this connection came about the writer nowhere says. From the passage quoted above, however, it will be seen that the writer of this book recognizes each man’s individual responsibility for his own sins (“they also had clothed themselves with the evil heart”). “It is noteworthy,”