ABSTRACT
The story of the creation of humankind in Genesis 2-3, with the placement of the pair in the Garden of Eden and their subsequent expulsion from the garden, has raised numerous problems of literary analysis and evoked a wide range of responses in biblical scholarship.1 Many attempts have been made at reconstructing the primitive form of the myth, or myths, that lie behind the present literary account. But these eff orts have been frustrated by the fact that until now no very close parallel has been found for the story of Genesis 2-3 as a whole, even though many suggestions have been off ered about the various details of the story. This is in marked contrast to the fl ood account in Genesis where a very similar story exists in a number of versions of the Baby lonian fl ood epic. In the classic version of the Atrahasis Epic the fl ood even follows an account of the creation of humankind, but the Babylonian treatment of creation has little in common with the Genesis presenta tion.2 This has not prevented some scholars from trying to read the biblical account as a version of the Babylonian epic, but with little success.3 Nor is there any greater success in looking to the Ugaritic myths or among the rich lore of the classical world.
