"Gates of Eden" is a song by Bob Dylan that appears on his fifth studio album Bringing It All Back Home, released on March 22, 1965 by Columbia Records.

In a 2005 Mojo magazine poll of its writers and various well-known musicians, "Gates of Eden" was ranked 76th among Dylan's 100 greatest songs.

[3] The final verse in the draft is incomplete, consisting of just two lines:[3] At dawn my lover comes t' me an' tells me of her dreams The song was recorded in a single take on January 15, 1965, the same day as the other songs of side 2 of Bringing It All back Home—"Mr. Tambourine Man", "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"—were recorded.

Oliver Trager interprets "Gates of Eden" as Dylan's declaration that "blind belief in a forgiving afterlife is the ultimate lie because it creates complacency in this one.

[6][7] In the third verse, a savage soldier sticks his head in the sand like an ostrich and waits with a deaf hunter for the mythical ship to Eden.

[6] The seventh verse tells us that Blakean "kingdoms of Experience" eventually rot, poor people battle each other over their meager possessions and the nobility just babbles on, but none of it matters in Eden.

"[11] A live version of "Gates of Eden", recorded at its debut performance at Philharmonic Hall on October 31, 1964, was released on The Bootleg Series Vol.

[9][12] Others who have covered the song include Ralph McTell, Woody Lissauer, The Myddle Class and Bryan Ferry,[9][12] Dylan sang it with Neil Young on the 1992 album San Francisco Bay Blues.