Question regarding Genesis.?

Question

Athiests/Agnostics - If your answer is "bible is full of it," your opinion has been noted, so no need to answer. Thanks.

So here's my question:

Gen 1 claims that all the animals were created, then Adam, then Eve. Gen 2 claims that Adam was created, then animals, then Eve.

Since they cannot both be correct, which one is? And if this is the word of God, how can one be wrong?

Answer 1

i dont think it was meant to give a scientific chronological order .. it was simply stateing what happened .. in the context there is no discrepency ... thats my opinion ..

Answer 2

Actaully, Genesis 2 is not specific about when God created animals, it does not say "And God created" as Gen 1 does. Often the word 'and' is used when describing a sequence of chronological events. In Gen. 2:19 it says "NOW Jehovah God was forming from the ground every wild beast of the field and every flying creature of the heavens, AND he began bringing them to the man to see what he would call them...." The emphasis in this account is on the naming and not the creating, if you see my point. Much of the interpretation of the Bible depends on understanding how certain words can be significant. Read Gen 1 and 2 again and you will see what I mean. Each verse in Chapter 1 that describes an act of creation begins with AND, describing the sequence of events in creation. The word 'now' was, and is still, often used with no connection to time, such as sayings like "now there once was a..........".

Answer 3

I see it as in Gen 1 it will describe the order animals and people were created, Gen 2 describes it but not in the relating to the time when creating all this happened.
So there isn´t any contradiction between the two chapters.

it´s a description what God had made and maybe describing the way to Adam´s need for a wife. This is my thought.

Answer 4

A) Biblical exegesis has shown that the Book of Genesis was written by 4 different people at 4 different times.

B) All of them wrote for the same reason, ie, to get people to believe that there is only one God and that He IS God.

C) Each version of the creation of man is merely a fable. The point of it is to say that God did the creating, NOT to say that scientifically this is how it happened. The authors of Genesis were not interested in the mechanics of the event, only that their audience would accept that the event was orchestrated by the one true God.

D) The order of creation, the time it took to do it are all ancillary to the only salient point of the Book. There is only one true God and He did all the creating that there ever was, is, or will be.

E) The rest is merely commentary.

Answer 5

Genesis 1 - is to tell us the sequence of events leading up to G-d creating humans

Genesis 2 - is the beginning of human history, telling us that all things on this planet were made for us. It however, is not to be seen as another sequence of creation. If you will notice in verse 4 it says "these are the generations".

In Jewish tradition, this book is divided in just this way, generations. So, we have the generation of the original creation process (Chapter 1). Then (Chapter 2) is the generation of Adam, (3) Noah, and so on. It is not to be seen as saying there were two different sequences of the creation process.

Some describe Chapter One as a prologue of the book, then chapter two the author begins the story of man's history. Another thing you must remember, is that this is being translated from Hebrew to English, not only do these languages have different grammar rules; but Hebrew is written and read from Right to Left, not Left to Right. So, of course things are going to be literally lost in the translation process.

Answer 6

Gen 1 gives the order of creation.
In Gen 2:19, the Bible backtracks to the creation of the animals, so you can understand that He created ALL life the same way, ie, from dirt. This is in perfect agreement with Science, which claims that rainwater coming off of dirt and rocks created the first 'bubble skins' used by the original cells.

Answer 7

This is one of many contractions in the Bible. Another famous one involves the story of Noah's Ark. In Genesis 6:20, God instructs Noah to take two of each animal onto the ark. In Genesis 7:2, God instructs Noah to take seven of each clean animal and two of each unclean animal.

These contradictions are explained by the Documentary Hypothesis, which basically says that five authors wrote the Torah (the first five book of the Bible). The writings were later combined.

For an expert description of the Documentary Hypothesis, please read Richard Friedman's "Who Wrote the Bible?"

Answer 8

Moses wrote Genesis. In the 1st chapter, he relates the creation account in chronological order, touching on what God created (heavens/earth, plants, animals, humans). In the second, he reiterates the same account, but gives priority to Adam. He then mentions the animals, and gives details to Eve's creation.

This isn't really a contradiction, he just repeats what he said the 1st time in a different order to focus on the humans.

Answer 9

You will notice throughout the Bible that God repeats things. Especially in the Old Testament. In Genesis 1, He tells us about the creation and the order of it. In Genesis 2, He explains in more detail how He did it. Genesis chapter 2, is a recap of Genesis chapter 1.

For some interesting comments about Genesis, http://www.answersingenesis.org/

Answer 10

Personally, I assumed that Gen 1 was talking about actual creation of animals, while Gen 2 was more referring to the naming and "classifying" of the animals.

However, I am in no way an expert, and could be completely wrong... this is just my opinion. =)

Answer 11

Well, all the books in the bible aren't even in chronological order. I think of chap. 1 as somewhat detailed and chap 2 as summing it up to continue on.