Multiple Creation Stories

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Hi, a while back I heard there were two different creation stories in Gensis. I scanned through Genesis here:

drbo.org/book/01.htm

But didn’t see the two. Can anyone point me to the two, if there are in fact two creation stories?

Thanks.
 
The first creation story is the one where God created the earth in seven days.
The second one is the one with Adam and Eve.
 
regression said:
Hi, a while back I heard there were two different creation stories in Gensis. I scanned through Genesis here:

drbo.org/book/01.htm

But didn’t see the two. Can anyone point me to the two, if there are in fact two creation stories?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Hi-

It’s not as obvious in English as it is in Hebrew. Chap 1:1 to 2:3 is one account, structured according to “days,” it begins with the creation of the universe, moves through the beginnings of life on earth (in a sequence that is very much like time-lapse photography of what science thinks evolution might have looked like) and culminates in the creation of human beings, male and female. In this account God is called “God” (Elohim)

The other account starts at 2:4 and is distinguished by the fact that God is called by the Sacred Name (generally rendered “the Lord God.”)

This version refers only to “the day” rather than having a days-of-the-week structure. It begins with God creating man, then planting a garden for the man, and then presenting the man with a series of creatures, none of which proves to be a suitable companion until finally the Lord makes a woman.

Both are ancient traditions which the Jewish people obviously did not perceive as contradictory as they passed them both along. It’s only a problem for those who insist on a literalist approach to Scripture and have to come up with explanations of how both can be literally true. Fortunately, we’re Catholics . . .😃
 
mbgumby28 said:
The first creation story is the one where God created the earth in seven days.
The second one is the one with Adam and Eve.
Click to expand...
Oh, so they aren’t conflicting stories? That is what I was lead to believe. Do you happen to have the chapter / verse so I can read them?

Thanks.
 
regression said:
Oh, so they aren’t conflicting stories?
Click to expand...
I wouldn’t call them “conflicting.” Perhaps they are if you read them literally, though I read the text pretty carefully for years growing up and had no problem reconciling them while taking them literally.

If you see them as two different theological statements about creation with different emphases, I can’t see that “conflict” arises.

Many scholars would say that the first story has a much more remote, sovereign view of God, while God in the second story is more anthropomorphic–molds Adam out of clay, makes Eve out of Adam’s rib, walks in the garden in the evening, etc. Again, I find this to be complementary rather than conflicting. But many OT scholars would say that these are different theologies that were put together by the editor of the text as we have it.

Edwin
 
regression said:
Oh, so they aren’t conflicting stories? That is what I was lead to believe. Do you happen to have the chapter / verse so I can read them?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Yes, they need not conflict (though some will inevitably read them that way).

Read Genesis, chapters 1-3. That’s where both stories are.
 
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