Two Accounts of Creation in Genesis

Two Accounts of Creation in Genesis (Part 2)

posted by Krista | 4/3/2004 11:17:37 PM | Permalink | Stumble It!

The Creation of Man
Another distinct feature is that in the first story, man is presented as the climax of God's creation. Genesis 1 explains that God created mankind, "male and female" (Genesis 1:27) The second creation story does not tell of the creation of other forms of life, but only tells of how the LORD God created a man. It states that the LORD God "formed man from the dust of the earth." (Genesis 2:7) The first creation story does not give the details of what God used to create man. Also the second story explains that the LORD God first made man and then made woman from a rib of the man after it was established that man needed a suitable partner. While in the first story, God specifically tells mankind to "Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it," (Genesis 1:28), this does not seem like his intention in the second creation story until Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden of Eden.

In the first story, God creates man "in His image, in the image of God, he created them," (Genesis 1:27) while in the second story, only after Adam and Eve had partaken of the forbidden fruit and gained the knowledge of good and evil, does the LORD God say that man has now "become like one of us." (Genesis 3:22) It seems that the LORD God is displeased with the idea that man could become like gods.

Also, in the first story, God creates man after all other creatures and gives them the authority to "rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on earth." (Genesis 1:28) He also tells them that He gives to all living creatures all green plants and all seed-bearing plants for food. In the second story, the LORD God forms a single man first. He then goes on to create trees, land dwelling animals, birds, and finally one woman. The LORD God also tells the man and woman that they are forbidden to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Also in the second story, it the LORD God created all other creatures in attempts to find a suitable partner for Adam. (Genesis 2:18-19) When no fitting helper was found, the LORD God created a woman for Adam from his rib, not from the dust of the earth from what Adam was formed.

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Timeframes of the Two Accounts
Scholars categorize these two stories into two separate time frames. The first is known as the Priestly (P) account because it is associated with the priestly caste of ancient Israel, while the second is known as the Jahwist (J) account because the J writer always calls the Creator, Yahweh.

The P account is dated much earlier than the J account because it is mythological in nature. Scholars believe that it was based on the Enuma Alish, an ancient Babylonian myth. The P account also tends to try to "de-mythologize the cosmological myths" (Buchner, Frank. Ph.D. "Genesis 1-3") in the final analysis. The emphasis here is on the Sabbath (the seventh day when God rested) and also on the image of mankind as being in the image of God so that man is perceived as being superior to all other of God's creations.

On the other hand, the J account is less concerned with trying to historicalize the act of creation and more interested in explaining why mankind differs from both the LORD God and the LORD God's other creations. It shows how man and woman try to become like the LORD God by means of eating the fruit of knowledge of good and evil and so are inferior to the LORD God, but also how they are separated from the LORD God's other creations because they marry, they are ashamed of their sexuality and nakedness, they must work hard for their food, and why women experience pain during childbirth.

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Male and Female
Both the Genesis texts describe parity between male and female. God gives humankind "dominion" over fish and other living things, not over each other (Genesis 1:28). God punishes both female (Genesis 3:16) and male (Genesis 3:19), cursing the serpent (Genesis 3:14) and the ground (Genesis 3:17).

It is interesting to note, however, that the sin of Adam and Eve did not play a part in explaining the origin of sin until late in the Second Temple Period with New Testament writings and apocalyptic writings such as the Apocalypse of Abraham.

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Read more: Part 1

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