or to propel themselves in an upright position, did not expect people to live to be over 900 years, and were aware that Hebrew was only one of a number of languages spoken in the ancient Near East. We must also not overlook the fact that the narratives themselves clearly describe ‘before’ and ‘after’ situations, making it explicitly clear that there can be no return to the ‘before’ situations. Thus, humanity is forever banished from the garden of Eden, and the earth is no longer benign when it comes