| I need help understanding what appears to be contradictory passages below: How many creations are in Genesis? 1:25 And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the ground after its kind: and God saw that it was good. 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 1:27 And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
One account 2:18 And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him. 2:19 And out of the ground Jehovah God formed every beast of the field, and every bird of the heavens; and brought them unto the man to see what he would call them: and whatsoever the man called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 2:20 And the man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the heavens, and to every beast of the field; but for man there was not found a help meet for him. 2:21 And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: 2:22 and the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Second account Which one is right? On the subject of light: God creates light and separates light from darkness, and day from night, on the first day (Gen 1:3-5). Yet he didn't make the light producing objects (the sun and the stars) until the fourth day (Gen 1:14-19). And how could there be "the evening and the morning" on the first day if there was no sun to mark them? So what comes first, the chicken or the egg? Response: I'll do my best to give the short answer here :) First, it's important to understand that Genesis was not written as an astrophysics textbook for 21st century readers any more than Jesus' description of the "mustard seed" is intended to be a lesson in botany. The author's intent was to script a creation account that combated the creation myths of Israel's neighbors. As such, the author uses theolgical motifs embedded in the cosmologies of the Ancient Near East. For example, in the Akkadian and Sumerian accounts you have sky and water formed by the gods cutting another god in half (Tiamat). Or, the heavens and earth are formed out of the slaying of a god. The Genesis account speaks to the contrary by establishing that Israel's God is the God of creation - absolutely distinct from creation - and there are no other deities involved. Secondly, Genesis is not written as a temporal sequence (especially since the sun, moon, and stars are not created until Day 4 which is contrary to cosmogony, so hopefully this note answers your last question raised). Rather, it's written in a way to show how God creates and provides purpose out of chaotic landscape. Here is a breakdown of that scenario: Day 1: Light (the landscape) --> Day 4: Sun, moon, & stars as signs (the purpose) Day 2: Water & sky (the landscape)--> Day 5: Creatures to inhabit the sky and waters (the purpose) Day 3: Dry ground (the landscape) --> Day 6: Land creatures & Man (the purpose) Genesis is not giving us a temporal order of when the events took place, it's more of a framework showing God's creation and then its purpose - and these days correspond as the sequence above illustrates. As the Vice Principal of Biblical Studies in Bristol, England Ernest Lucas explains, "the creative acts of the first three days correspond to those of the second three .... In the first three days empty 'structures' are created by acts of 'separation.' These are then filled with creatures in the second three days. This structuring emphasizes that the creation is planned and ordered" (E.C. Lucas, "Cosmology", Dictionary of the Old Testament Pentateuch, T.D. Alexander and D. Baker, eds. (Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2003), p. 136). So when we approach Genesis 2 and notice the events "out of sequence" we should not be at all disturbed. For Genesis 2 is now seeking to show the purpose of animal life for Man. As Old Testament scholar Walter Kaiser humorously noted in a lecture once, God created the animals for Adam and after he discovered that none were his type, God then created Eve. The point? Chapters 1 and 2 in Genesis are only attempting to show a landscape-fulfillment motif in the former case and how the animal kingdom is purposed for Man in the latter. I hope this helps! |
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