142 THEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS 



his degradation is somehow connected with Adam's 

 sin, if not capable of demonstration, is at least natu- 

 rally made, and cannot be shown to be inconsistent 

 with the sequence of ideas in Genesis. 

 . (b) The Old Testament at large indicates that the 



Israelites were slow in attaining definite conceptions 

 of sin; and at no time prior to the publication of the 

 Gospel were they able to combine their conceptions 

 into coherent doctrine.^ But the Old Testament also 

 shows that their growth in the knowledge of sin was 

 divinely guided; and the positive ideas which they 

 acquired are either contained in, or harmonize with, 

 the fuller, clearer, and more coherent teaching of 

 Christian doctrine. The elements of Christian teach- 

 ing which are wanting in the Old Testament are just 

 those particulars which could not be understood prior 

 to the revelation of Jesus Christ, and the fulfilment of 

 His redemptive work on earth.^ The particulars 

 which do emerge in the Old Testament include the 

 following: (i) the universal prevalence of sin among 

 men;^ (2) the natural incapacity of men to avoid sin- 

 ning;^ (3) an association of this incapacity with birth 



^ F. R. Tennant, Sources, ch. iv; Canon Bernard, in Hastings, 

 Die. of the Bible, s. v. "Sin"; A. B. Davidson, Theol. of the Old 

 Test., ch. vii. 



2 What redemption was to restore needed to be learned before the 

 blinded spiritual intelligence of fallen man could acquire a definite 

 conception of what had been lost 



3 Cf. Gen. vi. 5; viii. 21; i Kings viii. 46; Job xxv. 4-6; Psa. cxxx. 

 3; cxliii. 2; Prov. xx. 9; Eccles. vii. 20. 



* This is implied in several of the passages cited above. Ten- 

 nant seems to reckon this as opposed to the doctrine of original sin, 



