'...And So They Went Out'

There has been much recent work on the textual traditions of the Life of Adam and Eve. This book takes that work a step farther. Arbel, Neufeld and Cousland bring a variety of methods to bear on the story -- literary, folkloric, sociological. They treat the text as an artifact of cultural history. This is an original, ground-breaking study that brings new sophistication to the study of the Jewish and Christian pseudepigrapha. -- John J. Collins, Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT, USA The book ...AND SO THY WENT OUT contains challenging insights into the "Lives" of Adam and Eve (GLAE and LLAE) and offers an innovative exploration of literary theory, anthropological models, genre features. The authors analyse the expressive and transformative power of these narratives proposing a renewed multilateral approach to the texts. The book represents a major contribution to scholarship of multiple stories and their cultural and ideological environments. It is an admirably dense example of scholarly work that brings to light levels and nuances of meaning seldom to be found in one volume. -- Adriana Destro, Professor of Cultural Anthropology and of Anthropology of Religions, University of Bologna, Italy.

Daphna Arbel is an associate professor at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies. Robert J. Cousland is an associate professor at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies. Dietmar Neufeld is an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies.

General Introduction Chapter One: From Eden to Paradise: Layerings of Meaning Chapter Two: How Eve Became Evil Chapter Three: Ritual Transformation Chapter Four: New Traditions in the "Books of Adam and Eve" Chapter Five: Status Production and Reversal Chapter Six: From Fig Leaves to Fashion: Adorning Body Surfaces Conclusions Selected Bibliography Index