“the analysis of the story in the rest of this book does not address it as a tale of men and gods in which characters are interpreted as embodiments of ideas such as truth, virtue, or cupidity. The story is not interpreted as a veiled account of a historical event or process—such as the ascent of a particular ancient tribe, say, the Adamites, to power. Nor does it regard the story as a typological tale in which Adam and Hawwa foreshadow particular types of later people, such as royal elites and Israelite peasants. It does not consider the Garden story as one that provides hints or insights into secret lore or mystical doctrines. All of these interpretive strategies have already been used to explain the story, or to explain it away, or to make it make sense so that the Bible could be taken seriously, or to clarify it for theological reasons. None of these reasons for reading, or objectives for analyzing, the story interests me.”