Why does the Bible contradict itself in these passages?

Question

Gen.1:25-27
"And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and the cattle after their kind ... And God said, Let us make man ... So God created man in his own image."

Gen.2:18-19
"And the Lord God said it is not good that man should be alone; I will make a help-meet for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them."

See the contradiction?No?..How about looking closer.The first verse says God made the animals first.Then later it says God made the animals after man to keep him company and man would name these new animals that God had just made for him.Look it up yourself.So why does the Bible contradict itself from the very beginning?And I am still trying to figure out what "help-meet" means...

Answer 1

The Bible has a lot of contradictions because different human beings included what they wanted in the text.

Answer 2

Several possibilities, here's two:
1. God is describing a teleportation process that did not translate well into the original writer's language. That's a lot of animals to name so to speed up the process God could have formed (teleported) them in front of Adam. I doubt teleportation was a well-defined concept (even the Yahoo spell checker didn't recognize "teleportation" or have I misspelled it?); therefore, God would have used words such as "form" to describe the process rather than giving the author a science and linguistics lesson, which He then would have to give to whomever read it lest they also be confused.
2. He created animals, then He created some more (not new types, more of the same) in front of Adam for him to name. The day of rest (the seventh day) ended the creation process so it is possible these animals were fresh off the press, so to speak.

God's purpose for the Bible is to provide His message of love, guidance, and salvation to us. It is not to keep an anally correct account of everything that happened. I see people write, "the Bible says 1000 here and 2000 there" or "700 here and 7000 there". So what? I've found the philosophy, guidance, and salvation message to be consistent from beginning to end despite that it was written by several authors spanning over 1000 years. If some scribe made a slide error in some obscure passage, I don't care.

Answer 3

It's not a contradiciton. Genesis 1:24 God said Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds,
Gensis 1:27
so God created man in his own image.
Genesis 2:19
Now the Lord had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them.
Geneisis 2:21
No sutitable helper was found for Adam so God caused him to fall into a deep sleep and he took one of his ribs and created Eve.
Read a little more than the first 2 pages, then we'll talk

Answer 4

You are confused by the translation you are reading. This is from the NIV:

"The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

"Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name."

Verse 19 is not denoting new creative activity. Rather, it is a summary of God's previous creation...serving as an introductory statement into Adam's naming of the creatures.

BTW: "Help-meet" in today's lingo would probably be best described as "soul-mate".

Answer 5

What you're looking at as contradiction is actually just a misunderstanding of how people talked in the 1600's when the King James version was translated and when comparing those two texts, you are inadvertently taking them out of context.

What we see in Gen 2 is a recap of everything that had happened, which is them used to explain what's happening in verse 20...

Chapter 1 is a rather hurried description of creation. Chapter 2 goes back over creation adding in a few more details. Much like we would relate a story today... we tell the general parts first and then rehash the details for those who hang around and want to hear them.

Try the Tony Translation (Tony is my bf) :

So God did all this creating... that sums up Chapter 1... on to chapter 2...

1) so that's how creation went, in a nutshell
2) and after working so hard at creation for six days, when the 7th one rolled around God said "wow, I'm pooped.. I need to take a break.
3) and so God figured he'd set aside every 7th day to rest, cuz it seemed pretty groovy.
4) yeah, so that's about how creation went when God created earth and everything else.
5) remember we went over how there weren't any plants yet and how God hadn't made it rain and stuff like that... on and there was nobody to work the ground...
6) but God was cool and found a way to water the ground using streams
7) Ok, so let's move on... God created man and gave him breath, and suddenly man was alive
8) And god put him in a garden ... on the east side of Eden... yeah, that's where he put him.
9) Oh, and remember how God made all those trees???? There were good for snackin, but there was tree in the middle of the garden called the tree of life and another one called Good & Evil Knowledge (GEK for short).
(vs 10-14 describe where to find Eden.. we'll skip that cuz I suck at geography... we'll pick up where you left off)

18) And God said "ya know... it's probably not good for this man to be alone... so I'll make a helper for him... but it has to be someone that's suitable...

19) now, remember how God created all the animals and birds and stuff??? Well, he brought them to the man to see what he would call them

20) So the man gave names to all the animals and birds and creepy crawlies, but none of them made a suitable mate for the man

21) So God put the man to sleep and while we was sleeping he performed a really bizarre surgery, taking out one of his ribs and then closing up his flesh

22) Then God used that rib that he took out of the man and and made a woman, then he brought her to the man...

See... you have to know how to read it in order to avoid seeing contradictions where there are none.

Answer 6

To quote my Mother, "God uses crooked letters, to write in a straight line." You're getting lost in the crooked letters. There are several major contradictions in Genesis. But don't stop thinking when you find one. The text you are reading, doesn't indicate that the two stories of creation, are from two different sources, with two different themes.

But while you reading, notice that He made the day and the night, several days before the Sun. This sounds like a contradiction, until you learn that ancient man believed that the sun was the recipient of light, not the source. When read in context, this is an ancient theological debate, between monotheists and polytheists. (Lunatics valued a light when it was dark, and scoffed at a light that only came out in the daylight)

Fundamentalists have a difficult time understanding these passages, and are forced to write apologies that redefine the meaning of the word light. And in the same way, are forced to redefine the meaning of 'in his own image', and 'help-meet'.

Answer 7

There is no contradiction. Look closer. It says God CREATED the beast. Then in the second verse, he FORMED them.

Theory 1: God first imagined the beast, then He gave them life (formed them). First He created their body, like Ge did with Adam. Then He breathed life into them, like He did with Adam.

Theory 2: God created the beast, then He created Adam. He then called them, summoned them, formed them, brought them in front of Adam so he could name them.

I hope this is clear enough. There are no inconsistencies in the Bible.

Answer 8

i think they mean help mate, and yes the bible does contradict itself a lot it can be very confusing.Just remember the bible was written by man not god himself..thats probably why it contradicts itself...between what was originally written and how it gets interpreted..it just gets messy..
Also that 2nd bible verse isn't about the animals keeping him company its when the animal are brought before him(adam) to get named..the animals wasn't there to keep adam company that would be when god put adam to sleep for awhile to make a woman out of adam's rib..the woman was supposed to keep adam company and be his helpmate.Also God did make the earth and sea and animals before he made man.i think u need to reread the bible or get an easier version..cause thats not where it contradicts itself.

Answer 9

You would be wiser by far to say you do not understand it, and to ask for help, meet for you.

Have you never been in the spirit with the father? I have seen these things, creatures we see today and others. It is something like a dream, but it is not a dream, it's God.

meet: taken from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance

H5048
נגד
neged
neh'-ghed
From H5046; a front, that is, part opposite; specifically a counterpart, or mate; usually (adverbially, especially with preposition) over against or before: - about, (over) against, X aloof, X far (off), X from, over, presence, X other side, sight, X to view.

Answer 10

No contradiction, he just made animals twice--once to fill the earth, and then once more in front of Adam so that Adam could name them and see that none of the animals were the right partner for him. It was a teaching tool.

Answer 11

They are not contradictating each other. You are taking chapter 2 following in time from chapter 1. It is not. Chapter 1 is an overview of creation and chapter 2 is about humanity creation and the begin of the relationship between us & God.

Does this make sense.