Response to gotquestions.org - Why 2 Creation Accounts?
Question: “Why are there two different Creation accounts in Genesis chapters 1-2?”
GotQuestions.org’s Answer: Genesis 1:1 says “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…” Later, in Genesis 2:4, it seems that a second, different story of Creation begins. However, close examination of the text will show that what is recorded in 1:1-2:3 is an introductory summary of the events of creation, and that what begins with verse 2:4 is a more detailed account of the Creation of mankind. There is nothing in the two Creation accounts that contradicts. Genesis 2:4-25 should be understood as a further explanation of what happened in Genesis 1:26-31. It is comparable to taking a magnifying glass to Genesis 1:26-31 to take a closer look at the Creation of mankind.
Though I will eventually cover this in more detail, I will highlight some points to consider.
Genesis 2:4-5a introduces the second account as the history of things from the time creation was over, until some point before mankind started farming (i.e., before there herbs “of the field”). We know that mankind started farming after his expulsion from the garden, so this an introduction to history between Day 7 and man’s expulsion from the Garden.
Another point to consider is the series of events that would have had to occur before nightfall for Genesis 2 to be an account of Day 6:
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Creation of animals
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Creation of Adam
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Creation of the garden
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Placement of Adam in the garden, to tend and keep it
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Creation of all mammal species
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Adam to name all animals
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Observation that Adam was alone
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Adam took a deep nap, while God created Eve
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Eve took off without Adam, and was tempted
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Eve went back for Adam, and both ate of the fruit
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Adam and Eve made clothes from fig leaves to cover themselves in shame
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Adam and Eve heard God looking for them and hid
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God banished them from the garden
The problem here is that all of this could not have happened on a single day.
- How long was Adam alone? (Genesis 2:15-18)
- For how long did Adam tend and keep the garden? (Genesis 2:15)
- How could Adam name all the animals in a day? (Genesis 2:19-20)
- When did Adam have time to feel lonely? (Genesis 2:20)
- How long was Adam’s deep sleep? (Genesis 2:21)
- When did Adam learn what a father and mother were? (Genesis 2:24)
- When did Eve have time to experience pain-free childbirth? (Genesis 2:24, 3:16)
- What was Eve’s “conception” multiplied from? zero? (Genesis 3:16)
I believe the narrative Genesis 2 (and 3) make a lot of sense if Day 6 was the original creation of mankind (which we can determine from the fossil record), and that mankind indeed ruled the world (Genesis 1:26-28), and that after God rested, He picked one of those men, named him Adam, and gave him a conscience. He then put him in the garden, and then spent many years there communing with God, and then later Eve. Eve most likely had children while in the garden, but painlessly. Then, one day, the serpent tempted her, and mankind was evicted from the Garden. I think their easy life made their new life seem miserable at first.
There are other scriptural oddities suggesting day 6 happened some time before Genesis 2, but that is for another time.