The Way of Jesus the Messiah spread within the Pagan Roman Empire.  It confronted a wide range of Pagan doctrines and philosophies.  Yet this variety had common ideas.  One common doctrine explained how each one of us came to be.  This idea is still held in the Shia branch of Islam.

It goes like this:  Before the person, her (or his) soul was an immaterial being in divine bliss high in the celestial realm.  Then her soul starts to fall, according to a spiritual gravity.  The soul runs into and accrues matter on the way down.  The descent is never smooth, leaving her soul without some capacities that other souls have.  When the descent is complete, the little tyke emerges from the womb, her soul animating her body and held there by the spirit of the descent, the fated trajectory of her tumble.

Thus, this newborn infant who looks so innocent is really a divine soul descended into material matter.

And, some would add, the “divine” is “good” and the “material” “evil”.