Are there differences in the inspired narratives of Genesis 1 and 2? Of course there are. Many also scholars argue that Genesis 1:1-2:4a and Genesis 2:4b-25 are products of two different sources. It reflect different authors, different time periods, etc. It is further charged that the narratives contradict each other in several particulars. Genesis 1 and 2 provide accounts of what God did during creation. But these two chapters don’t seem to agree. It seem like Genesis 1:1-2:4a and Genesis 2:4b-2 are different from each other in many ways.
First, each of these two sections of Genesis contains a different introduction for the creation story. Genesis 1 launches with the eloquent and imminently quotable, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Gen 1:1). The text reaches its conclusion, where the narrative voice announces, “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array” (Genesis 2:1).
However, a second introduction appears in Genesis 2:4: “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth…. ” This initially seems a little redundant–at least on the surface of things. It seems to suggest a second creation story rather than one alone. Another factor distinguishing the two passages is the way each refers to God. In Genesis 1:1-2:4a passage, it refer to God as God while in the second creation story always refers to God as Lord or Jahweh.
The sections also differ in genre. One is written in poetry and the other is written in prose. Genesis 1:1-2:3 is a poetic text. It is in verse and probably the writer(s) intended for it to be sung as a chant. Each section begins with: “And God said … ” (Genesis 1). Each section ends: “And there was evening, and there was morning–the … day. ” Likewise, after the first two days, we have the artistic repetition of the phrase “And God saw that it was good,” leading up to a final buildup, “and it was very good” in Genesis 1:31. This structure is high poetry.
In contrast with Genesis 2:4-3:23 is a non-poetic text. It is written in prose rather than in poetic lines– no meter. Another differences in each passage’s sharply contrast in tone. The narrative voice in Genesis 1-2:3 is solemn, nified, precise, and organized. He wastes no words. He is a poet of great skill. He focuses on God as transcendent. The narrative voice in Genesis 2:4 is also skillful, but in a different way. He focuses much more on down-to-earth details and appeals to vivid and concrete imagery. In anthropomorphic terms, he describes God doing a “hands-on” creation like a potter shaping clay.
Not only the style is difference but story behind the creation is also different. The sequence of what gets created when appears to be slightly different in each account. In Genesis 1:1-2:3, the sequence is as follows: Day One: Light or “Day” is separated from Darkness or “Night. ” We have an evening and a morning pass by (though the sun and moon are not yet created, nor solid ground to be a revolving earth). Day Two: An expanse or barrier (the firmament) is made to separate and hold apart the “waters above” and the “waters below.
Another evening and another morning pass. Day Three: God separates the “waters below” from dry land. The “waters above” are still left in place somewhere above the firmament. On the same day, God commands the land to produce vegetation including both seedbearing trees and plants (though the sun is not yet created for photosynthesis). Another evening and another morning passes. Day Four: The sun, the moon, and the stars are created. Another evening and another morning pass. Day Five: Aquatic creatures and birds are created. Another evening and another morning pass.
Day Six: Terrestrial creatures are created–including livestock and “all the creatures that move along the ground. ” Then God makes humans. Another evening and another morning pass. Day Seven: God rests from his labors. Genesis 2 is not a day by day report in sequence. Genesis two is a more detailed explanation of the sixth day; the day that Adam and Eve were made. The detailed recap is stated in Gen. 2:4, “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven. Also the initial chapter [Genesis 1) gives a general account of the creation. Genesis 1 mentions the creation of ma as the last of a series, and without any details, whereas in Genesis 2 man is the center of interest and more specific details are given about him and his setting. So Genesis 1:1-2:4a is more orderly, planned creation since it main focus is on creation itself whereas Genesis 2:4b-2 is more of a random less schedule creation since it main focus is on man creation. To conclude that differences in style or main focus of the Genesis mention in above indicate different authors.
Most people have only one definition for myth, assuming that it is a story once thought to be true, but now proven to be false as in the example of the ancient belief that the earth was flat. This is also how the Mebster dictionary define the word myth as”: an idea or story that is believed by many people but that is not true or a story that was told in an ancient culture to explain a practice, belief, or natural occurrence. ” Defining myth this way would then imply that this type of literature would never appear in the Bible because the Bible contains the truth revealed by God. However, myth can be understood in more than one way.
One of the most helpful definitions is provided by Margaret Nutting Ralph in her book “And God said What” she stated, “A myth is an imaginative story that uses symbols to speak about reality, but a reality that is beyond a person’s comprehension. Societies compose myths to orient themselves in a moral and spiritual world” (And God Said What? , p. 29). This characterize Genesis 3 as myth could refer back to the reference of there are actually two Creation accounts in the Book of Genesis. The first appears in Genesis 1:1 –2:4; the second is Genesis 2:4-25. These two stories are very different and yet the meaning and message is the same.
At the heart of both of these Creation myths is a sacred truth, namely, that God is the source of all Creation, that all Creation was made good and beautiful, that human beings are created in the “image and likeness” of God, and that God commanded humanity to be good stewards of God’s Creation. So I believe the Ralph’s characterization of Genesis 3 is a useful and accurate because no can prove the story of Genesis 3 is true because no one exist during that time, but this qualify as a myth because not only this is not true, it also it teach us that the fall of humanity.
By this act, sin entered the world for the first time. Our world and our lives have not been made better because of sin. In fact, sin has made everything about our existence much, much worse. Sin changes things. Many may be subtle changes but in the end the consequences are horrific. If sinners only knew what they were doing to themselves, they would not feel so clever. If disciples will always remember that sin is never free, then they will much better be able to deal with temptation.
Sin changes things. This is was in the bible because similar to the myth definition was told in an ancient culture to explain a practice, belief, or natural occurrence. In another way to explain why the role of men as man’s cultivation of growing crops and women as child bearing as describe in the following passage, “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;” (Genesis 3:16-19)