Saturday, December 15, 2007

The Two Geneses (?) explained

I was discussing the first of many contradictions in the Bible - two inconsistent accounts of Creation in Genesis, with two incompatible timelines. She hadn't seen that one before, and insisted on being given the verses. If anyone else hasn't seen it, here they are:

Genesis1:11-13
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so .... And the evening and the morning were the third day.

Genesis1:25-27

And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image.... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
(Notice that men and women are created simultaneously, and only after all the other plants and animals.)

Genesis 2:4-9
These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth ... And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil..
Genesis 2:18-22
And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an 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 unto Adam to see what he would call them....
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
(First God creates the man,, then the plants, then the animals, then the woman.)

My friend is nothing if not fair, so she did her own research and came up with the explanation for how this muddle came about:

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

LOL. Indeed.