Doesn't Gen 1 contradict Gen 2 ?
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August 6, 2009 - 09:42
Dear BasiC (Brothers And Sisters In Christ),
I was stunned by a question from a member of my bible study group, he asked about the contradiction between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, regarding the creation of human.
In Genesis 1, it is said that plants, trees were created by God before God created human on the 6th day.
(Gen 1:11-13) - New Jerusalem Bible
11 God said, 'Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants, and fruit trees on earth, bearing fruit with their seed inside, each corresponding to its own species.' And so it was.
12 The earth produced vegetation: the various kinds of seed-bearing plants and the fruit trees with seed inside, each corresponding to its own species. God saw that it was good.
13 Evening came and morning came: the third day.(Gen 1:26-31) - New Jerusalem Bible
26 God said, 'Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures that creep along the ground.'
27 God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them, saying to them, 'Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all the living creatures that move on earth.'
29 God also said, 'Look, to you I give all the seed-bearing plants everywhere on the surface of the earth, and all the trees with seed-bearing fruit; this will be your food.
30 And to all the wild animals, all the birds of heaven and all the living creatures that creep along the ground, I give all the foliage of the plants as their food.' And so it was.
31 God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good. Evening came and morning came: the sixth day.
Then as we read on Gen 2:5-9
(Gen 2:5-9) - New Jerusalem Bible
5 there was as yet no wild bush on the earth nor had any wild plant yet sprung up, for Yahweh God had not sent rain on the earth, nor was there any man to till the soil.
6 Instead, water flowed out of the ground and watered all the surface of the soil.
7 Yahweh God shaped man from the soil of the ground and blew the breath of life into his nostrils, and man became a living being.
8 Yahweh God planted a garden in Eden, which is in the east, and there he put the man he had fashioned.
9 From the soil, Yahweh God caused to grow every kind of tree, enticing to look at and good to eat, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
I was quite surprised about the question. My answer was there are 2 different perspective of the creation 'story' between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. Genesis 1 was written according to a tradition of Elohimist (not sure of the correct english spelling). This is clearly shown by the usage of "GOD" word form in Genesis 1. In the ancient Hebrew, the word "GOD" used in Genesis 1 is "ELOHIM", a plural form. Then in Genesis 2, as you may see in the English translation (Yahweh God), the word "GOD" used in ancient Hebrew is "YHWH" (Yahweh). This is simply because the Genesis 2 was written according to Yahwist tradition.
I think regardless the point of view, the main story was God has created everything for human, because God has loved us so much.
Please kindly revise my answer from an eligible Catholic point of view. Thanks in advance and God bless you all BasiC !
With Love,
-Ronny-
August 10, 2009 - 09:04
#2
There is a nice article from
There is a nice article from catholic.com a website for catholic apologist:
Are There Contradictions in Genesis 1 and 2?
http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2004/0401sbs.asp
And as william said, we shouldn't read the creation story as literal day by day God made the world. It is not the view of Catholic when we read the bible, but rather the fundamentalists. In fact it is not a view of Christian since early christianity. There is a good article that shows that even the Fathers of the Church do not read the Creation story in Genesis literally:
August 11, 2009 - 14:14
#3
thanks bro Will and bro Oka....
thank you for the replies... it added new horizon to my point of view on the bible... God bless you all...
Dear Bro,
I believe I won't be able to answer your question with a perfect answer. However I would like to share what we learn in our bible study session in St. Mary. Recently we held a session named T3 timeline. In that session, the speaker is revealing the overview of bible and how the connection between old and new testament.
It started with Genesis and I vividly remember during the session, the speaker emphasized that we should not be reading the bible in search for logical sequence or details but instead we have to listen to what the writer is trying to tell the reader about God and the truth. Bible is inspired by God and written in the word of Man. Hence it is important to realize that God's knowledge is not easily summarized by humanly language. Besides, describing the history of the world from beginning in a book is unimaginable. Hence the details might not be captured thoroughly.
Regarding the question on the seemingly contradicting verse in the Genesis 1 and 2, in my opinion (please don't take this for granted), there can be different interpretation in the phrases. In Genesis 1, God reveals that human, in particular woman, is the most intricate creation of his. You can see the flow of creation from simple things to animals and plants and ended with the creation of Adam and lastly Eve.
At the other hand, Genesis 2 mentioned that God had not created plants because no rain or human yet, but it is not written that God had to create human FIRST before there can be plants. In addition, It mentioned creation of man prior to sentence that talked about creation of garden of Eden but it does not necessarily meant that man is created first before the garden. It just happened that the writer would like to emphasize different teaching or understanding about God.
I hope you understand what I am trying to say :D Thanks bro for sharing!