Two Accounts of Creation

Problem

When we compare the words of Genesis 1 with those of Genesis 2 we find several disagreements with the order of events.

Man and women seem to be created together, after the lower animals.

In the second chapter, man appears to be created first, then the beasts, and lastly the woman.

Answer

Note that the contents of Genesis 1:1-2:3, when outlined, fall into two groups of three.

If one takes Genesis 1:1,2 into account something interesting happens. Genesis 1:1 in the Hebrew doesn't say "In the beginning" but rather "In beginning". This very well could account for "a" beginning, or our beginning. Next, Genesis 1:1 says that God created the heavens and the earth, Genesis 1:2 says the earth was without form and darkness was on the face of the deep.

This either means that Genesis 1:1-2 is a brief summary of Genesis 1:6-10, or that God created the space/time continum, matter, ...then Day 1, the electromagnetic spectrum. Day 2, the universe as we know it. Day 3, our planet and life sustaining atmosphere in His presence. Day 4, celestial objects, if not putting the earth into motion for days, seasons, and years. Day 5, simple life. Day 6, complex life.

It is also interesting to note the following literary arrangement within Genesis concerning God's creation act:

The Second Account

Those who embrace this documentary hypothesis believe that the first creation story is the work of an anonymous priestly editor or editors around the time of the Babylon exile in the 6^th century or immediately thereafter. By contrast, they believe the second creation story is from a much earlier writer, usually designated as the Yahwist, again an anonymous writer or writers from Jerusalem in the time of David and Solomon (the 10^th century).

The first reason for making this distinction is a different and, at points, contradictory account of the sequence of the orders of creation. The first being vegetation, fish and birds, animals, man and woman; the second being man, vegetation, animals, and woman.

The second reason is that the exclusive name for the deity is God (Elohim), but in the second it is Lord God (Yahweh Elohim).

The third reason is that in the first sequence God creates primarily by speaking. "And God said, 'let there be', and it was" -- creation by fiat. In the second sequence the emphasis is on God as a potter or craftsman, "the Lord God formed man of dust" (Genesis 2:7); "out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field" (Genesis 2:19); "and the rib... He made into a woman" (Genesis 2:22).

The forth reason in the first sequence, the emphasis is on cosmogony -- whence this world? In the second sequence, the emphasis is on anthropology -- whence this man?

It appears on the surface that we are faced with two originally independent creation stories, in origin about five hundred years apart.

The same literary technique is used with Christ's temptations, His preachings,Feasts of unleaven bread, Israelites at Sinai, John aquainted with Jesus previous to baptism, etc. No where in the more detailed accounts is it mentioned, expressed, or implied that the order is being conveyed.

No author would have reason to repeat the same story twice, and in immediate succession, and contradict himself. Instead what we see are supplementary details, seen as contradictory when the stories are misinterpreted.

The author (Moses here) connects transactions closely related to each other as to his purpose (mans relationship with creation in this instance), without regard to the order of occurrence. This is the style of Hebrew historians. It is to their disregard of chronological order, to the rearranging of their materials topically, rather than consecutively, -- a method of composition entirely keeping with their simplicity of thought and diction.

The differences of order arise from simply the condensation of the narrative in the first chapter, and from the disregard of chronological order in the second. At no time is there a dispute within Genesis that God did the creating, or that the things were created. Even with order aside, the lesson of creation isn't in question. There is a divine plan that has its roots in creation: From the earth Adam will come forward. From Adam, Abraham and his progeny will emerge. Eventually, out of Abraham, Jesus Christ will emerge. On a scientific scale, even the best authorities will concede that there is a "general correspondence" between the Biblical account of creation an the deductions of geological science.

In the first chapter, the historian gives a general, yet concise, account of the six days' work; in the second chapter he recapulates, and, without following the order of time, gives some additional details.

"The writer's end is the history of man's fall. The serpent occasions, the wife shares it; it is therefore necessary to introduce the creation of the animals and of woman." Kalisch; Commentary on Genesis, p. 113 & 82

Genesis 2:4-25 does not appear, in the scheme of things, to be a break at all. But rather, it in a continuation: a close up of the supernatural Genesis 1.

Note that the order of events in chapter 1 is chronological. The order of events in chapter 2 is logical and topical, from man to his environment.

Chapter 1 is concerned with the world. Chapter 2 is concerned with a garden.

One is cosmic. One is localized. His relationship to the world is in His capacity as Elohim. His relationship to the couple in the garden is in His capacity as Yahweh Elohim. The first suggesting His majesty and transcendence, the second His intimacy and involvements with His creation. The stylistic changes simply reflect changes in subject matter, not authorship.

Genesis 1 describes the creation of the world, while Genesis 2 details and further describes the specific creation of Adam and of his immediate environment in the Garden of Eden. This is accented by the introductory phrase in Genesis 2:4, "These are the generation of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that yahweh Elohim made the earth and the heavens." Throughout Genesis the phrase these are the generations occurs nine other times, each time introducing an account of the offspring descended from a specific ancestor.

This would then indicate that in the verses following Genesis 2:4, we will find an account of the offspring of the heavens and earth after the initial creation has taken place. And that is just what we find here in the case of Adam and Eve (verse 7 -- "Yahweh Elohim formed man of dust from the ground).

This is not a case of incompatible reposition. We have an example of a skeletal outline of creation as a whole, followed by a detailed focus on the final point of the outline. This is a common Hebrew literary device. [Kitchen, K.A. Ancient Orient and the Old Testament. Chicago: Inter-Varsity Press, 1966. pp. 116-117]

Archaeology has brought this type of literary pattern to light. For just such a literary pattern is commonplace in other texts of the ancient Near East. On the karnak Poetical Stela from Egypt, the address of Amun to King Tuthmosis III breaks down this:

Paragraph one	expressing his general supremacy
Paragraph two	more precise poetical expression of supremacy

The Gebel Barker Stela is similar:

Paragraph one	general royal supremacy
Paragraph two	specific triumphs in Syria-Palestine

Several of the roal inscriptions of Urartu are likewise enlightening:

Paragraph one	victory over specified lands ascribed to the chariot of god Haldi
Paragraph two	detailed repetition of description of these victories, this time as achieved by the king

Just as an assignment of various portions of these Egyptian test to different documents is unheard of in scholarly circles, so it is absurd to practice a dissection of sources in the contemporary literature found in Genesis 1 and 2.

Chapter 1 shows is God the creator (Elohim -- the mighty one), where chapter 2 shows us God the Communicator (Yahweh Elohim -- the Covenant-maker). Different names are used of God since they designate a different aspect of His dealings with man (see Genesis 15:1; Exodus 6:3).

The anthropomorphic God of Genesis 2 fashions, breaths, plants, places, takes, sets, brings, closes up, builds, walks,.... Man's finite mind cannot expression ideas about God in anything but anthropomorphisms. Chapter 1 of Genesis expresses God in such equally anthropomorphic terms as called, saw, blessed, deliberated (verse 26 'let Us make'), God worked for six days then He rested.

Note that Genesis 2 does not contradict chapter 1, because it does not affirm exactly when God created the animals. In fact, no mention of days appear at all! Instead, the second account mentions that God had created them. Genesis says He brought the animals (which He had previously created) to Adam so that he (Adam) might name them. The focus on chapter 2 is on the naming of the animals, not on creating them. This again falls within the literary device which shows the relationship of man to creation in the second chapter. Genesis 1 provides the outline of events, and chapter 2 gives details. Taken together, the two chapters provide a harmonious and more complete picture of creation events. The difference then can be summarized as follows:

The same may be said regarding the order of events. In Genesis 2:19, there is no explicit warrant in the text for assuming that the creation of animals here happened immediately before their naming (i.e. after man's creation); this is eisegesis, not exegesis. The proper equivalent in English for this first verb in Genesis 2:19 is the pluperfect ('..had formed..'). Thus the artificial difficulty over the order of events disappears.

The second narrative, taken by itself, begins abruptly, with manifest reference to the first: "In the day that Jehovah Elohim made earth and heaven" (verse 4). It is, in truth, a misnomer to speak of chapter 2 as an account of creation at all, in the same sense as chapter 1. It contains no account of the creation of either earth, or heaven, or of the general world of vegetation; its interest centers in the making of man and woman, and everything in the narrative is regarded from that point of view.

References

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