Smoodock's Blog

Many scholars of the Bible conclude that there are two creation stories in the Bible (Genesis 1 & Genesis 2), and they conflict. Is this true? According to Dan McClellan’s[1] understanding they do. He claims the Genesis 1 account of creation actually ends in Genesis 2:4a, and the Genesis 2 account begins in Genesis 2:4b and extends to the end of the chapter. Additionally, he claims that the Genesis 2 record is actually earlier than the Genesis 1 record, and that the Genesis 1 account takes 7 days, while the Genesis 2 account takes only one day, according to Dan’s understanding of the text (Genesis 2:4b). So, Dan begins his dissertation with the Genesis 2 account of creation, saying that God “made the Earth and the heavens, vis-à-vis the “Earth is already there,” and “The creation account never actually addresses the creation of heaven,” vis-à-vis where the stars are. So, what can we say about this?

If we compare both records, God created the Heavens and the Earth (Genesis 1:1). Afterward he addresses the Earth, which “was without form and void,” vis-à-vis it was in the state of chaos, and God took seven days to bring order to it. It is this disorder, not the original creation of Genesis 1:1, that is addressed in Genesis 2:4b. In fact, if we allow the Genesis 1 account to end with Genesis 2:3, instead of Genesis 2:4a, the confusion disappears. “These are the generations of the Heavens and the Earth, when they were created…” (Genesis 1:1 = Genesis 2:4a), “…in the day the Lord God made the Earth and the heavens” (Genesis 2:4b = Genesis 1:2-19), vis-à-vis the Earth (and perhaps its solar system).

Next, Dan makes the point that before any plant grew to maturity and before there was a man to till the soil, there went up a mist from the land and watered the whole Earth (Genesis 2:5-6), which doesn’t present any apparent opposition to what is said in the Genesis 1 record. It’s merely testimony that adds to or leaves out what’s claimed in the Genesis 1 record. However, Dan claims there is an apparent contradiction at Genesis 2:7 v/s Genesis 1:27. Nevertheless, Dan presumes that God creating the man, singular (Genesis 2:7) is different from God creating mankind in Genesis 1:27. However, this isn’t true; we are dealing with raw data and the raw data may not appear, in reality, as we assume it must be.

The presumed contradiction is the man is alone, meaning without a wife in Genesis 2:7. While this is true, strictly speaking, this doesn’t contradict Genesis 1:27. In the earlier creation record male and female characteristics were created in the man/mankind (Genesis 1:27). Later, mankind is divided into a male man and a female man (Genesis 2:7, 21-25). This is similar to the dividing of light and darkness on the first day (Genesis 1:4), the dividing of the waters on the second day (Genesis 1:6), and the dividing of a 24 hour period into night and day with the appearance of the sun on the fourth day (Genesis 1:14). So, what Genesis 2 records is the dividing of mankind, which had been created male and female, a singularity, in Genesis 1:27 into a masculine man and a feminine man (woman) in Genesis 2.

Dan also claims that Genesis 2:18 contradicts Genesis 1:31, and he tries to make this point by concluding that Genesis 2:18 follows immediately after man is created. However, if we permit the man (male and female according to Genesis 1:27) to mature, then dividing the man into a male and a female would become necessary only later, because not only would this be true for procreation, but by this time the man would begin to wonder about himself, his essence, his purpose, etc. In other words, what was very good in Genesis 1:31, needed to be worked on in chapter two. Similarly, children, when they are young, are very good just as they are, and nothing needs to be added. However, when they get older, they need to put away childish ways and act as adults. If this doesn’t occur, then something has gone wrong, and technically things are no longer very good.

I perceive this is the kind of thing at work in Genesis 2:18. Moreover, it must happen this way, if mankind (male and female; Genesis 1:27) is to image the God (Genesis 1:26), who created him, because the one, without whom nothing was created (John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:15-17), resided in God and came out of God to tabernacle with mankind (1Timothy 6:15-15-16; Titus 6:16; cp. John 16:27; 17:8).

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[1] I intend this study to be a reply to Dan McClellan’s YouTube video: The Bible’s First Contradiction. Dan is a scholar of the Bible, and he is becoming one of my favorite critical scholars. I appreciate his work very much, but appreciating doesn’t mean I believe everything he says. I agree with lots of his stuff, but not all, and this study is an example of where we disagree.