If you want to see a real contradiction, compare Genesis 1 with Genesis 2:
So did God create the animals and then create man or did He create man and then the animals?
The Jewish commentaries caution about events such as these being taken too literally. just as you cite. Theologically more significant is that these are created by God, and that they are not deities in themselves.
From a different starting point, the two accounts of creation are considered to represent different traditions and were placed side-by-side so as to not ignore any nuance of meaning that they present.
Many commentaries grab verses out of context, despite the many admonitions not to do so. So, here’s one such out of context quote that seems to justify the inclusion of side-by-side, even seemingly contradictory versions: here it comes
ps 62 11 Once God has spoken;
twice have I heard this:
So, God spoke once, be we heard two versions of the creation account. The Jewish commentary approach is harmonization of whatever you run across. So, you don’t lose your faith over difficulties, you accept them and look for the truth that is contained therein.
There are deep subtleties in these two versions which are too lengthy to go into here.
The rationalizations and harmonizations are very creative. In the chapter 1 creation account, the emphasis on “day” is merely a motif to rationalize the creation of the seventh day sabbath. I’ve read that a subtlety that doesn’t translate into English, is that in Gen 1, all the verses consist of 7 Hebrew words or a multiple of 7 Hebrew words, to point over and over to the 7th day sabbath. In the english, you can see some fudging to make this come out, for example, on each of the days God says that “it is good” except for one day that would mess up the underlying word count. the repetition of phrases in Gen 1 reflects a poetic structure. the word for God in Gen 1 is “elohim” (plural) which is a general term for spirits, too. But, with respect to God, it carries an emphasis that God is a judge. So, the statements of God most of the days that “it is good” is not merely an observation, it is a divine judgment.
There is a structure to the Gen 1 account. The first three days create the various domains whereas days 4 to 6 create the things that occupy the domains. And the seventh day is the day on which, loosely speaking, God rests.
I’ve been reading a series of volumes from the Jewish Publication Society titled “Outside of Scripture: Jewish writings of the Second Temple Period” These are not considered canonical today. I’m less than halfway through the 3300 pages. The writings in this monumental work are in the genre of “creatively rewritten scripture”, where in a lot of difficulties like the ones in the OP are dealt with, often by rewriting and omitting the difficult issues in the Hebrew. Its rare occasions like this when I get a chance to relay some of this to unsuspecting readers.
But, these are serious attempts to overcome the difficulties noted by the OP, which were recognized thousands of years ago. And, by necessity, they often involve adding a lot of material that is not in the canonical version of the text.
