It seems that there are two different creation accounts in Genesis chapters 1-2. In fact, they describe the same creation. The Genesis 1 describes “six days of creation”, and the Genesis 2 mainly covers one day of that creation week, the sixth day. So there is no contradiction.
There are two mainly contradictions been mentioned between Genesis chapters 1-2. The first one is the plant life. Genesis 1:11 says God’s creation of the vegetation on the third day. Genesis 2:5 says “and no shrub of the field had yet sprung up, for the lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground. ” so which one is right. Did God create the man first or the vegetation? One response to the question is the different words of the “vegetation” in Hebrew. The term in Genesis 1:11 is referring to vegetation in general. And Genesis 2:5 uses a much specific term for vegetation, it needs agriculture from human beings. So there should be no contradiction at all. The Genesis 1:11 tells the story of God creating vegetation, and the Genesis 2:5 is saying the “farmable” vegetation starts after man is created.
Another contradiction is the animal life. Genesis 1:24-25 records God creating animal life on the sixth day, before the creation of man. And Genesis 2:19 mentions the creation of animals is after the creation of man. However, in Genesis 2:19-20, it says “Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air…” The text uses “had” (already) for the creation of animals. So there is no contradiction too. God created the animals in the sixth day, then he created man, then he brought the animals to the man and let the man name the animals
Therefore, the creation account in Genesis I describes the main line of creation while the Genesis 2 comes with more details. There is no contradiction between the two different creation accounts.
No comments:
Post a Comment