Synopsis: The story of the Garden of Eden is one of the most familiar in the Bible. But if we read it without preconceptions, we discover a narrative as its original audience would have heard it, as its author intended. Robbins explores why the man was created first, and the woman for and from him. She elucidates the reason for the particular punishments, and why the storyteller gave a woman the starring role. She does all this by highlighting the importance of wordplay in the Garden of Eden story. This book introduces not only a wordsmith but, above all, a supreme storyteller who is bound to become a personal favorite. Endorsements: "Through the lens of a very perceptive reading of the ancient story of the Garden of Eden, Ellen Robbins probes the meaning of human consciousness. This book will inform, excite, and deepen our quest to become fully human." --John Shelby Spong Author of Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World (2011) "What if we detach the story of the Garden in Genesis 2-3 and read it on its own terms? How much detail and how much 'knowledge' disappears and how much more suddenly springs to the reader's eye--at least if the reader is as good as Ellen Robbins, who points out how little the story is explicitly echoed in the rest of the Bible. And what if, like its original readers, we recite aloud, letting the sounds carry their share of the meaning? The insights from such a reading are too numerous to be summarized. Read this book and you will read the biblical story with an entirely fresh perspective and with sympathy as well as admiration for its heroes--the first humans." --Philip R. Davies Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies, Sheffield University Author of On the Origins of Judaism (2011) "When I read my paper at St. Andrews long ago, one of my colleagues described it as a tour de force; this book is a tour de force in spades. I have always known that, after my brief treatment, there was more to be said but no longer. Robbins has now said it all and she has said it clearly, elegantly and authoritatively." --D. R. G. Beattie Former Head of Semitic Studies, Queen's University of Belfast Author of The Aramaic Bible: Targums in Their Historical Context (1994) Author Biography: Ellen A. Robbins lectures on Hebrew Bible in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University. For many years she has taught a course on the Garden of Eden story and how it has been interpreted by Christians, Jews, and Muslims over the centuries.