ts." According to the same book (Th. iii. [Pg 17] S. 62),
Ahriman in the form of a serpent springs down from heaven to earth; and
another evil spirit is called (Th. ii. S. 217) the serpent--_Dew._
(Compare _Rhode_, _die heilige Sage des Zendvolkes_, S. 392.) These
facts prove that at the time when the Persian religion received Jewish
elements (compare _Stuhr_, _die Religionssysteme des Orientes_, S.
373), and hence, soon after the captivity, the doctrine of Satan's
agency in the temptation of our first parents was prevalent among the
Jews.

But of decisive weight upon this point is the evidence furnished by the
New Testament. We must here above all consider the important testimony
supplied by the fact of the history of the first and second Adam being
parallel (Rom. v. 12 sqq.; 1 Cor. xv. 45 sqq.),--a testimony, the
weight and importance of which have, in modern times, been again
pointed out by _Hahn_ in his _Dogmatik_. The necessity of Christ's
temptation by the prince of this world, in order that He, by His firm
resistance, might deprive him of his dominion over mankind, indicates
that Adam was assailed by the same tempter, and, by being overcome,
laid the foundation of that dominion.

Among the express verbal testimonies of the New Testament, we must
first consider the declarations of the Lord Himself; and among these
the passage John viii. 44 requires, above all, to be examined. In that
passage the Lord says: [Greek: humeis ek tou patros tou diabolou este,
kai tas epithumias tou atros humon thelete poiein. Ekeinos
anthropoktonos en ap' arches, kai en te aletheia ouch hesteken. hoti
ouk estin aletheia en auto. hOtan lale to pseudos, ek ton idion lalei.
hoti pseustes esti kai ho pater autou.] There is, indeed, an element of
truth in the opinion, that Satan is in this passage called the murderer
of men from the beginning, with reference to the murder by Cain--an
opinion lately brought forward again by _Nitzsch_, _Luecke_, and others.
This is evident from a comparison of 1 John iii. 12, 15, and of Rev.
xii. 3. (See my commentary on this passage.) Moreover, the words in
ver. 40, "Ye seek to kill Me," have a more direct parallelism in Cain's
murder of his brother, than in the death which Satan brought upon our
first parents; although it is altogether wrong to maintain, as _Luecke_
does, that Satan at that time committed only a _spiritual_ murder,
which could not have come under notice. Bodily death also came upon
mankind