The Adventures in the Garden of Eden of the First Humans: This narrative addresses the most troubling question faced by every human: “Why must I die?” In addition it gives a reason for several fundamental features of human experience—wearing clothes, pain in childbirth, toil and sweat in work, growth of thorns and thistles, and the enmity between humans and snakes. Much more importantly, this simple account offers penetrating insight into the human condition before God as well as giving the reason for the deep tensions between husband and wife and between humans and God.

The drama of this narrative is in seven sections, set in a palistrophic (chiastic) pattern.

A God forms the man and places him in Eden (2:4b–17)
B God makes a woman to complement the man (2:18–25)
C The serpent and the woman t…