It describes her theory of how the Hebrews suppressed allegedly goddess-based religions practiced in Canaan and how their reaction to what she asserts as being the existing matriarchial and matrilineal societal structures shaped Judaism and, thus, Christianity. She spent a decade on research before writing the book published in the UK as The Paradise Papers and then in the U.S. From 1958 to 1967 she worked as a sculptor, exhibiting widely and executing numerous commissions. She taught at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Merlin Stone became interested in archaeology and ancient religions from her study of ancient art.
