How do sacred texts define who we are and how we relate to one another as women and as men? This remarkable
anthology surveys more than two millennia of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim commentary on the biblical story that
continues to raise fundamental questions about men, women, and society. There are almost one hundred selections
in this book, and they range widely from postbiblical interpretations in the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha to three
commentaries written especially for this volume. These texts demonstrate the remarkable hold the story of Eve and
Adam has had on the western imagination. Though the biblical account has been invoked throughout history to justify
all manner of discrimination, this book reveals an equally rich tradition of egalitarian interpretation. These
texts are lively representatives of a debate that continues to animate men and women to this day.