Re the Garden of Eden:
Recent Sumerian studies have shown that the conception of a divine garden and of a state when sickness and death did not exist and wild animals did not prey on one another is to be found in Sumerian mythology. (Their writings are older than Hebrews and Abraham was a Sumerian from Ur, one of their chief city-states--patio) The desciption of this earthly Paradise is contained in the Sumerian poem which Dr. Kramer has called the Epic of Emmerkar:
The land Dilmun is a pure place, a clean place, a bright place. The lion killed not, the wolf snatched not the lamb, unknown was the kid-killing dog, the grain-devouring boar, the sick-eyed says not "I am sick-eyed', the sick-headed says not 'I am sick-headed', the old woman says not I'm an old woman (or man). The singer utters no wail, by the side of the city he utters no lament.
Later, one of the immortals and his wife were allowed to live in Dilmun after the Flood.
(Btw, the ancients were located in the valley between the Tigris and Euphrates and flooding--great floods--happened occasionally as with any river valleys.)
Also the Sumerian mythology (written BEFORE the Bible) had a goddes who was created to deal with a rib and was named Ninti, which means 'the lady of the rib.' Sumerian word 'ti' had double meaning of 'life' as well as 'rib', so that Ninti could also mean 'the lady of life'.
We have seen that in the Hebrew myth the woman who was fashioned from Adam's rib was named by him Hawwah, meaning 'life.' Hence one of the most curious features of the Hebrew myth of Paradise clearly has its origin in this somewhat crude Sumerian myth.
And the list of plagerisms from the Sumerians goes on and on and on.
(Information is from the book Hebrew Mythology" by S. H. Hooke.)
Patio