The Storyteller and the Garden of Eden

"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)