The goddess created for healing his rib was called in Sumerian Nin-ti “the lady of the rib.” But the Sumerian ti also means “to make live.” The name Nin-ti may thus mean “the Lady who makes live” as well as “the Lady of the rib.” Through the wordplay, these two designations were used for the same goddess. It is this “literary pun,” according to Kramer, that explains Eve’s title and her being fashioned from Adam’s rib (1963; 149).6(b) Eden’s Four Rivers. Speiser (1994) following F. Delitzsch (1881), holds that the term Cush (Gn 2:13) is “the eponym of the Kassites” rather than the name for the region of the Upper Nile and “only a Kassite context can accord with the phrase ‘in the east’ of Genesis 2:8” (177).7 Then Speiser, in search of the Garden of Eden refers to Dilmun, “the land of the living,” which lay near the head of the Persian Gulf and tries to identify the Pishon and the Gihon with actual rivers not far from the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates (1994:178–82).8Speiser contends that “the original narrator...has to be visualized as looking from the Persian Gulf inland” and hence “the ‘four heads’ (v. 10) are meant to be viewed upstream rather than down.” However, this view has been aptly criticized by Wenham, who holds that “the general setting as described in vv. 5–8 favors a Mesopotamian site.” As Wenham says: "the greatest difficulty with this [Speiser’s] view is that, according to Genesis, the rivers as they flow from Eden split into four, whereas on Speiser’s location they flow toward Eden to converge there" (1987: 66).Westermann holds that: "the intention of the author in inserting 2:10–14 was not to determine where paradise lay, as the majority of interpreters hold, but rather to point out that the “life-arteries” of all lands of the earth have their source in the river that watered paradise" (1984: 216).He thus denies any attempt to identify the source of the four rivers geographically. On the other hand, Wenham holds that: in Eden a great river rises, and after leaving the garden, splits up into four rivers including the Tigris and Euphrates. On this basis alone we should conclude that Eden lies somewhere in Armenia near the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates. And this is a long-established, widely held view (1987: 66). (c) Sumerian Origin? According to Miller (1994: 155–56), the picture of creation set forth in the initial section of the “Harab Myth”9 may be compared with Genesis 2–4:1. “In the Harab myth the re-creation state is ‘wasteland’ (harab), not unlike the picture in Genesis 2 of a time with no planet or herb, no rain, nor anyone to till the earth.”2. “Both stories give primacy to the need to work or till the earth.”3. “As in Genesis 2, the first thing that is done in the creation is the creation of water, though in Genesis 2 it is sweet water to water the plants (’ēd) and in Harab it is sea (Tamtu). But in the Harab myth, river, i.e., Idu (=Heb. ’ēd), comes in the next generation as daughter of sea (Tamtu).”4. Farming and shepherding appear in the creation “in a genealogical sequence” in both stories.5. In both, the first city tradition (Gn 4:17 Irad / / Eridu) comes between creation and flood.But there are also differences between the two, as Miller notes. In the Genesis account, there exists a clear distinction between the divine world and the human world and the tilling of the earth and the ruling and shepherding of the animals as well as the building of cities are human tasks (Miller 1994: 156). We might add that in Genesis 2–3 Yahweh is the sole divine agent and is significantly without any female consort.Until recently, the Sumerian connection of the Eden story has been supported almost unanimously. However, according to Sjöberg, who recently reexamined Sumerian connections with regard to the “tree of life,” there is “no evidence” for such a tree in Mesopotamian myth and cult. He says: "The identification of different trees on Mesopotamian seals as a Tree of Life is a pure hypothesis, a product of pan-Babylonianism...There is no Sumerian or Akkadian expression ' Tree of Life' "(1984: 219–21). Wallace collects “a wide range of material which has some pertinence for the study of the tree of life in Genesis 2–3, ” including the tree symbolism of Asherah. He carefully avoids equating this Asherah symbol with the tree of life in Genesis 2–3, which “concerns eternal life and not the fertility of womb and field” (1985: 114). However, it must be admitted that those references outside of the Bible are indirect.Etymology of ‘ēThe term 'ēd in Genesis 2:6 has been rendered as “spring” / “fountain” or as ‘?nānā “(rain-)cloud” or “vapor, mist” (targum). Modern versions translate it “mist” WJV, RSV, NEB note, NIV note), “flood” (RSV note, NEB), “water” (JB), or “streams” (NIV). However, there has been no satisfactory Semitic etymology. Recently I investigated the etymology of ‘ēd thoroughly (1989). I have shown that Albright’s view that the Hebrew ‘ēd is a Sumerian loanword via Akkadian id “river” (1939: 102–103) is less convincing than Speiser’s view that ‘ēd is connected to the Akkadian edû “flood,” which is a Sumerian loanword from e4-dé-a (1955: 9–11). While it is possible that ‘ēd is a shortened form of ‘ēdô in Job 36:27, as a result of the loss of a final vowel when or after Akkadian edû was borrowed into Canaanite, I have made the following suggestions:1. ‘ēd (Gn 2:6) is a loanword directly borrowed from Sumerian e4-dé;2. ‘ēdô (Jb 36:27) is a loanword from Sumerian via Akkadian edû.Both ‘ēd and its allomorph ‘ēdô mean “high water” and refer to the water flooding out of the subterranean ocean (1989:115).Etymology of ‘ēdenIn the light of the new information from Fekheriyeh, Millard, Greenfield and others have recently suggested that the term ‘ēden means “a well-watered place” (Millard 1984; Greenfield 1984; also Wallace 1985: 84). This fits the context of Genesis 2 very well. There are three theoretically possible explanations for the etymology of the Hebrew ‘eden:(a) Sumerian Loanword Directly into West Semitic. The Sumerian edin “plain,” has been suggested as its origin. But since Sumerian presumably has no phoneme /’/, it is not likely that the Sumerian edin was borrowed directly into Canaanite as ‘ēden or the like. Also, the meaning “plain, steppe,” or uncultivated land, does not fit the context of Genesis well.(b) Sumerian Loanword via Akkadian into West Semitic. It has been suggested that the Sumerian edin was borrowed through Akkadian edinu. While this has been a common view for the etymology, Hebrew ‘eden cannot be a loanword from or via Akkadian edinu, since Akkadian has no phoneme /’/ either. Also edinu might be simply a semitized reading of the Sumerian edin and not used as an actual Akkadian word.(c) Common West Semitic. The root *’dn, which appears in the Fekheriyeh Inscription, in a Ugaritic text, in the divine epithet h’dn in Old South Arabic, as well as in the Arabic verb ‘adana, probably has the literal meaning “to make abundant in water supply.” Hence, the Hebrew ‘ēden probably means “a place where there is an abundant water supply” (see Gn 13:10). The term *’eden (plural ?dānîm in Ps 36), which means “pleasure, luxury,” has the same etymology as Eden, though the MT seems to distinguish ‘ēden from *’eden (Tsumura 1989:123–37).Two WatersI compare the two waters in Genesis 2:5–6, “rain” and flooding water,