Humans cannot live without stories. But one story has proved itself the most durable and hauntingly real of all time. The mythic tale of Adam and Eve has shaped conceptions of human origins and destiny for centuries. Stemming from a few verses in an ancient book, it became not just the foundation of three major world faiths, but has evolved through art, philosophy and science to serve as the mirror in which we seem to glimpse the whole, long history of our fears and desires. What is it about Adam and Eve's story that fascinates us? What does it tell us about how our species lives, dies, works or has sex? In a quest that begins at the dawn of time, Stephen Greenblatt takes us from ancient Babylonia to the forests of east Africa. We meet evolutionary biologists and fossilised ancestors; we grapple with morality and marriage in Milton's Paradise Lost; and we decide if the Fall is the unvarnished truth or fictional allegory. Ultimately, The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve allows us a new understanding of ourselves.

Jacob Milgrom, a rabbi and Bible scholar, has devoted the bulk of his career to examining the laws of the Torah. His incisive commentary on Leviticus, which began with Leviticus 1-16, continues in this last volume of three. It provides an authoritative and comprehensive explanation of ethical values concealed in Israel's rituals. Although at first glance Leviticus seems far removed from the modern-day world, Milgrom's thoughtful and provocative comments and notes reveal its enduring relevance to contemporary society. Leviticus 23-27 brings us to the climactic end of the book and its revolutionary innovations, among which are the evolution of the festival calendar with its emphasis on folk traditions, and the jubilee, the priestly answer to the socio-economic problems of their time. With English translations that convey the nuance and power of the original Hebrew, this trilogy will take its place alongside the best of the Anchor Bible Commentaries.

Is the concept of God dead? Or is the experience to which the concept points, and the supreme value which it expresses, dead? In other words, shouldn't the question for today's world be, "Is Man Dead?" rather than "Is God Dead?" In this major book from the author of "The Sane Society" and "Man for Himself," we explore the evolution in the Old Testament of the basic concepts of God, Man, History, Sin, and Repentance. Erich Fromm shows how the concept of God evolved from that of a "jealous" God to that of a "constitutional monarch" and finally to that of the nameless God bound by the same principles that govern man. Conversely, he shows how Man, once the obedient servant of God, became free to the point of making his own history. While his vast knowledge and wide-ranging insights cover a broad area, Erich Fromm's greatest appeal to today's readers will be in his urgent cry for a rebirth of humanism—and in his implicit answer to the question, "Is religious experience necessarily connected with a belief in God?"

Many books have been written on the Bible and evolution by scientists, but this volume is written by a biblical specialist. In Faith and Fossils Lester Grabbe, a prominent Hebrew Bible scholar, examines the Bible in its ancient context and explores its meaning in light of emerging scientific evidence. Both the Bible and the fossil record raise significant questions about what it means to be human, and Grabbe expertly draws on both sources to grapple with who we are and where we came from. Written in uncomplicated language and featuring eleven spectacular color plates, Grabbe's Faith and Fossils creatively shows how science and faith intersect in questions about human origins.

In this fascinating book, Knohl shares his understanding of how the Torah was edited into its final form. He bridges the gap between ancient Israel (c.1400-586 B.C.E.) and Second Temple times (c.536 B.C.E.-70 C.E.) by showing the continuity between these eras and the gradual evolution of the biblical worldview, which formed the foundation of later rabbinic Judaism. The book focuses on the editing of the Torah, interpreting the textual evidence, most notably contradictions and redundancies, to show that the idea of a pluralistic understanding of Revelation can be traced back to the editing of the Torah itself. Knohl’s interpretation of biblical composition challenges a popular trend in contemporary biblical scholarship: the idea that ancient Israel never existed as a historical reality, but was invented and “retrojected” back in time by later Israelite priests as part of their national myth.