As I re-read the story it seemed obvious it couldn't really be history — or if it was, it was completely unverifiable: Eve is created from Adam's rib; a snake converses with and
tempts Eve; God puts a very desirable fruit tree in the garden then commands man not to eat it; eating this fruit causes all the world's pain and suffering; God curses Adam, Eve, their descendents, and the earth; «every living thing» is destroyed
by a worldwide
flood; all our modern animals descend from the originals on Noah's Ark; and so on.