Bruce Wells is Associate Professor in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas, Austin. He is the author of The Law of Testimony in the Pentateuchal Codes (2004), co-author of Everyday Law in Biblical Israel (2009) and Fault, Responsibility, and Administrative Law in Late Babylonian Legal Texts (2019), and editor of The Cambridge Companion to Law in the Hebrew Bible (2024).

• Introduction: a new direction; 1. The problem of the story's prehistory; 2. The Babylonian evidence: temples and their personnel; 3. The Babylonian evidence: oblates and orchards; 4. The oblates of Eden at work; 5. The oblates of Eden in revolt; 6. Interpreting the Eden story; Conclusion: historical touchpoints; Appendix; Bibliography; Subject index; Text index.

Bruce Wells is Associate Professor in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas, Austin. He is the author of The Law of Testimony in the Pentateuchal Codes (2004), co-author of Everyday Law in Biblical Israel (2009) and Fault, Responsibility, and Administrative Law in Late Babylonian Legal Texts (2019), and editor of The Cambridge Companion to Law in the Hebrew Bible (2024).

• Introduction: a new direction; 1. The problem of the story's prehistory; 2. The Babylonian evidence: temples and their personnel; 3. The Babylonian evidence: oblates and orchards; 4. The oblates of Eden at work; 5. The oblates of Eden in revolt; 6. Interpreting the Eden story; Conclusion: historical touchpoints; Appendix; Bibliography; Subject index; Text index.

Bruce Wells is Associate Professor in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas, Austin. He is the author of The Law of Testimony in the Pentateuchal Codes (2004), co-author of Everyday Law in Biblical Israel (2009) and Fault, Responsibility, and Administrative Law in Late Babylonian Legal Texts (2019), and editor of The Cambridge Companion to Law in the Hebrew Bible (2024).

• Introduction: a new direction; 1. The problem of the story's prehistory; 2. The Babylonian evidence: temples and their personnel; 3. The Babylonian evidence: oblates and orchards; 4. The oblates of Eden at work; 5. The oblates of Eden in revolt; 6. Interpreting the Eden story; Conclusion: historical touchpoints; Appendix; Bibliography; Subject index; Text index.