Book excerpt: This study on the representations of Paradise in the Hebrew Bible (Genesis 2-3 and Ezekiel 28) also deals with the reception of the biblical accounts in early Jewish writings (Enochic texts, the Book of Jubilees, Qumran texts) in Rabbinics and Kabbalah, early mainstream Christianity and in early Christian apocryphal and Gnostic literature. Two further chapters are devoted to views of Paradise in the Christian Middle Ages. The volume concludes with the interpretation of Paradise in John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost.